  The capability of R to do symbolic mathematics is enhanced by the caracas
package. This package uses the Python computer algebra library SymPy as a
back-end but caracas is tightly integrated in the R environment. This enables
the R user with symbolic mathematics within R at a high abstraction level
rather than using text strings and text string manipulation as the case would
be if using SymPy from R directly. We demonstrate how mathematics and
statistics can benefit from bridging computer algebra and data via R. This is
done thought a number of examples and we propose some topics for small student
projects. The caracas package integrates well with e.g. Rmarkdown, and as such
creation of scientific reports and teaching is supported.
