A Crash Course in Mathematica

Stephan Kaufmann

Springer Science & Business Media, 1999 - Computers - 200 pages

This compact introduction to Mathematicaaccessible to beginners at all levelspresents the basic elements of the latest version 3 (front §End.txt.Int.:, kernel, standard packages). Using examples and exercises not specific to a scientific area, it teaches readers how to effectively solve problems in their own field. The cross-platform CD-ROM contains the entire book in the form of Mathematica notebooks, including color graphics, animations, and hyperlinks, plus the program MathReader.

Contents

• Preface: 9
• A Short Tour: 16
• Numerical Calculations: 17
• Graphics: 19
• Programming: 22
• Some of the Most Important Functions: 23
• The Basics: 27
• 11 The Structure of the Program: 28
• 112 The Kernel: 29
• 12 Online Documentation: 31
• 13 Formulas: 32
• 132 Entering Formulas and Special Characters: 34
• 14 Simple Calculations: 37
• 142 Numerical Calculations: 41
• 143 Algebraic Manipulation: 44
• 144 Transformation Rules and Definitions: 46
• 145 Equations: 51
• 146 Calculus: 59
• Graphics: 67
• 21 Graphs of Functions of One Variable: 68
• 22 Graphs of Functions of Two Variables: 80
• 221 Surfaces: 81
• 222 Contours: 86
• 223 Density Plots: 89
• 23 Parametric Plots: 92
• 232 ThreeDimensional Parametric Plots: 93
• 24 Tools from Standard Packages: 100
• 242 Tools for TwoDimensional Graphics: 101
• 243 Tools for ThreeDimensional Graphics: 102
• 244 Legends: 103
• 245 Vector Fields: 105
• 25 Animations: 110
• 26 Exporting to Other Programs: 113
• Lists and Graphics Programming: 115
• 31 Lists: 116
• 312 Manipulating Lists: 117
• 313 Multidimensional Lists: 120
• 322 Mapping Functions on Lists: 121
• 323 Pure Functions: 122
• 324 Using List Elements as Arguments: 124
• 325 Plotting Lists: 126
• 33 Linear Algebra: 131
• 34 Graphics Programming: 136
• 342 Graphics3D Objects: 139
• 343 Objects from Standard Packages: 140
• Animating a Mechanism: 146
• Introduction to Programming: 151
• 41 Expressions: 152
• 42 Patterns: 155
• 422 Constraints: 157
• 423 More Complicated Patterns: 162
• 424 A Simple Integrator: 163
• 43 Evaluation: 167
• 432 Attributes: 168
• 433 The Evaluation Process: 169
• 44 Programming Tools: 172
• 442 Functional Programming: 173
• 443 RuleBased and Recursive Programming: 176
• 444 Procedural Programming: 179
• 445 Modularity: 181
• 446 Compiling Numerical Calculations: 183
• 45 Further Information: 185
• Index: 187

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Crash Course in Mathematica
• Author: Stephan Kaufmann
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media, 1999
• ISBN: 3764361271, 9783764361273
• Length: 200 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Computer Science; Computers / Data Processing; Computers / Information Technology; Computers / Mathematical & Statistical Software; Mathematics / Applied; Mathematics / Discrete Mathematics