Winter 2010
MATH 207: Mathematical computing
Branko Ćurgus

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

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• The information sheet
• Today is the first day of Mathematical computing with Mathematica. We will use which is available on all campus computers. This is an old, but still powerful, version of this software.
• What to do if things go wrong? There are 5 ordered actions that you can do.
  
  1. Abort evaluation in Kernel menu, keyboard shortcut Alt+.
  2. Quit kernel in Kernel menu,
  3. Exit Mathematica in File menu Alt+F4
  4. Ctrl+Alt+Del
  5. Power off your computer
• There are five types of brackets in Mathematica:
  
  • ( ) -- parentheses or round brackets -- for grouping terms --   ((E^(I Pi)) + 1)
  • [ ] -- square brackets or box brackets -- for arguments of functions --   Cos[Pi/5]
  • { } -- braces or curly brackets -- use them to put things together in a list --   {1, 0, Pi, E, I}
  • [[ ]] -- double square brackets -- use them with lists --   {1, 0, Pi, E, I}[[4]]
  • (* *) -- starred parentheses -- for comments in Mathematica code --   (* this is ignored *)
• Pay attention to the structure and design of the cells in a notebook. If you want to put text in an Input cell, then it must be enclosed in (* *)

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