Re: show workings
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg63944] Re: [mg63935] show workings
- From: "David Park" <djmp at earthlink.net>
- Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 01:30:30 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
Paul, The answer is yes and no. Most of Mathematica's more advanced algorithms, such as Solve, DSolve, NDSolve, are coded in C, are many many pages long and use advanced algorithms that would not be very understandable for the average user or for a beginning mathematics student, say. So there is no way to see their inner workings and I don't think you would want to unless you had a highly specialized and professional interest in advanced symbolics and numerical methods. However, Mathematica can be used in a didactic mode. For example, Mathematica has a Solve command for solving an equation. If you wanted to show the steps in manipulating an equation to the 'solved' form, you could bypass Solve and manipulate the equation directly by mapping pure functions onto each side of the equation. I have a notebook at my web site, called StepByStepEquations, that shows how to do this. There is also an Expression Manipulation package there that allows expressions to be manipulated in a very detailed manner, whereas on its own Mathematica would do everything at once. Mathematica is a strange beast. It is not at all optimized for students. There are many little gaps and inconveniences. It is not unreasonable that it is this way because to fill the gaps and make it more convenient would mean extending it in many directions for all of the various areas of study students would use it in. The lesson is that you should expect to have to add your own definitions and rules to make Mathematica work conveniently in your area of interest. This is not all bad; it is a good way to learn the subject matter. At the same time there are opportunities for developers to create packages that fill the gaps for students. The most important test for such packages is that they would allow students to follow common textbooks and research papers, using the notation of the book and doing derivations, step by step if necessary, and exercises. The operations supplied should be attuned to the mathematical principles and the axioms and propositions of the subject and not look like 'computer science' or programming. David Park djmp at earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~djmp/ From: Paulkawa [mailto:paul.england1 at ntlworld.com] To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net Being new to Mathematica can anyone tell me if it is possible to setup Mathematica to show all the working out of problems, in order to better understand how it arrives at the answer Cheers Paul
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