Re: learning calculus through mathematica
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg107893] Re: learning calculus through mathematica
- From: "David Park" <djmpark at comcast.net>
- Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 03:36:42 -0500 (EST)
1) Familiarize yourself with basic Mathematica syntax and commands before
undertaking any significant math. Otherwise you will waste a lot of time.
Study most the Core Language Section of Help. (Also some of the items on the
bottom of the page.) Look at the Functional Programming material. It's VERY
useful, especially Function and pure functions. Do a lot of typing of the
examples in your own notebooks, with your own variations.
2) Learn the basic structure of notebooks so you can organize material in
Sections. Learn how to enter Text cells, and even Inline cells within Text
cells, so you can give textual description to your work.
3) Then "fly solo" with your calculus books. Or you might want to first try
even simpler books where you know the math and only have to worry about the
Mathematica. When it gets boring go on to new math material.
4) Get in the habit of writing definitions with arguments for objects that
you use. For example, don't write:
a=3.5
b=6.22
f= a Sin[b x]
Plot[f,{x,0,6}]
Write:
f[a_, b_][x_]:= a Sin[b x]
Plot[f[3.5,6.22][x],{x,0,6}]
Have fun, and ask questions on MathGroup, with specific examples if
possible. There are no such things as silly questions because silly people
never use Mathematica in the first place.
David Park
djmpark at comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/
From: j l [mailto:lapse23 at hotmail.com]
Hi there,
I am new to Mathematica and I would like to use it as a way to learn
calculus (alongside some books that I have). Does anyone have a good
reference page or some suggestions about how to go about doing this?
Sorry for the n00bish question; I'm mostly just trying to teach myself more
math.
Thanks