Computerized computations performed on mathematical symbols without evaluating or changing their meaning are called symbolic computations. Generally, symbolic computing is also called computerized algebra, and such a computerized system is called a computer algebra system. The following subsection has a brief and good introduction to SymPy. In Chapter 6, Applying Python for Symbolic Computing, we will have in-depth coverage of symbolic computing in Python.
Let's discuss the concept of Computer Algebra System (CAS). CAS is a piece of software or toolkit used to perform computations on mathematical expressions using computers instead of computing manually. In the beginning, using computers for these applications was called computer algebra; now this concept is called symbolic computing. CAS systems may be grouped into two types. The first type is general-purpose CAS, and the second type is CAS specific to a particular problem. General...