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Don't math majors use Mathematica, Coq, or other such symbolic computation tools instead?


Not if you want peer acceptance and not be dismissed as a mere CS student.

It's acceptable to download your brilliance into something such as, say, CAYLEY/MAGMA [1], [2] but, obviously, once you start grinding the organ [3] and using it algorithmically for computation you're just another monkey . . .

[1] http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/conferences/london93.html

[2] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-15582-6_...

[3] http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/


Tools don't often help you understand maths, but obviously help you to solve problems.

There are plenty of areas where tooling is rudimentary or unfashionable, like programming, where the tools are like chisels and saws used by artisans.




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