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Re: Anyone know of a book on Mathematica suitable for 16-18year old?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg116211] Re: Anyone know of a book on Mathematica suitable for 16-18year old?
• From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
• Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2011 05:45:35 -0500 (EST)

A good answer depends a lot on exactly for what reasons the 16- to 
18-year-old child is going to be learning and using Mathematica.

If to ignite a sense of discovery beyond what's ordinarily encountered 
in school mathematics (at least at most U.S. high schools), then Stan 
Wagon's "Mathematica in Action", 3rd edition, is a possible choice. Lots 
of fascinating applications to math; but the Mathematica can get 
heavy-going at times.

If, however, the primary purpose is to assist with understanding 
advanced high-school and beginning college-level math, including 
calculus, then a better choice might be the notebooks to be found 
on-line for various courses.  Supplemented, where needed, by the 
built-in Mathematica documentation.

If all that's wanted is a guide to getting started with Mathematica or 
how to do some of the nuts and bolts of Mathematica as applied 
especially to math, then there are a number of books suitable for that. 
However, I tend not to recommend such things: I'd much rather use a book 
(if I use a book at all) that's build around a context of a particular 
mathematical topic or related series of topics.



On 2/4/2011 1:38 AM, David Kirby wrote:

>    From: David Kirkby
>    To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
>    Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:27 AM
>    Subject: [mg116127] Re: Anyone know of a book on Mathematica
 >   suitable for 16-18year old?

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305