Re: Re: show workings
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg63956] Re: [mg63944] Re: [mg63935] show workings
- From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz at mimuw.edu.pl>
- Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 08:45:42 -0500 (EST)
- References: <200601240630.BAA23636@smc.vnet.net>
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
On 24 Jan 2006, at 07:30, David Park wrote: >> 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 > 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. Perhaps one should add that even if one "had a highly specialised and professional interest in advanced symbolics and numerical methods" it would not be a good idea to "watch" these algorithms being carried out step by step. All these algorithms are well known and described in various texts and if one is interested in them the right thing to do is to read such texts. It's like when you are interested in architecture it is not terribly helpful to watch a house being built. If someone would like to see what I mean they can try this: On[] Integrate[x^2 Sin[x], x] You will be relieved when you can finally stop this with Off[] Perhaps it is also worth adding that the way computers do mathematics is usually entirely unsuitable for humans. A human mathematician who tried to tackle mathematical problems by hand using methods learnt from a computer program would make a curious spectacle and would be unlikely to be very successful unless, of course, he/she/it was some kind of cyborg. Andrzej Kozlowski
- References:
- Re: show workings
- From: "David Park" <djmp@earthlink.net>
- Re: show workings