The Joy of Mathematica : Instant Mathematica for Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra

Rating:
Summary: Making Mathematica a Joy to Use
Review: "The Joy of Mathematica" really does make Mathematica software a "Joy" to use, and to learn. Users of Mathematica know and love the powerful capabilities of this excellent mathematical software environment for symbolic and numeric computation with incredible support for 2D and 3D graphics. Students and professionals considering adopting Mathematica are often awestruck by the enormous range of mathematical capabilities suddenly put at their fingertips. However, Mathematica is not a Joy to use, as each powerful command (and there are many) is accompanied by so many parameters and modifiers (all necessary), requiring a not so Joyful syntax. "The Joy of Mathematica" comes to the rescue, and indeed, it is a real JOY to use! "Joy" comes in the form of a book, an easy to use tutorial and guide, with an accompanying CD. The software on the CD installs easily, and modifies your own Mathematica "front end" environment by providing very useful and well organized pull-down menus which launch diaglog boxes. The diaglog boxes are great! They remind the user which parameters and choices need to be specified in the context of a particular Mathematica command. They provide immediate examples for the student to try. They output clear summaries of the entered requests, organize the computed output, and allow the user to view the actual Mathematica commands which "Joy" issues. This in turn helps the user learn Mathematica's arcane command syntax (if you want to bother). "Joy" provides the student and experienced user with the menu structure we all wish we had when using Mathematica. "Joy" is really a terrific teaching and learning tool for college students of science and engineering, and a great way to bring great math software into the hands of high school students. It's a "Joy" for me and my son, and it will work for you too.

Rating:
Summary: Making Mathematica a Joy to Use
Review: "The Joy of Mathematica" really does make Mathematica software a "Joy" to use, and to learn. Users of Mathematica know and love the powerful capabilities of this excellent mathematical software environment for symbolic and numeric computation with incredible support for 2D and 3D graphics. Students and professionals considering adopting Mathematica are often awestruck by the enormous range of mathematical capabilities suddenly put at their fingertips. However, Mathematica is not a Joy to use, as each powerful command (and there are many) is accompanied by so many parameters and modifiers (all necessary), requiring a not so Joyful syntax. "The Joy of Mathematica" comes to the rescue, and indeed, it is a real JOY to use! "Joy" comes in the form of a book, an easy to use tutorial and guide, with an accompanying CD. The software on the CD installs easily, and modifies your own Mathematica "front end" environment by providing very useful and well organized pull-down menus which launch diaglog boxes. The diaglog boxes are great! They remind the user which parameters and choices need to be specified in the context of a particular Mathematica command. They provide immediate examples for the student to try. They output clear summaries of the entered requests, organize the computed output, and allow the user to view the actual Mathematica commands which "Joy" issues. This in turn helps the user learn Mathematica's arcane command syntax (if you want to bother). "Joy" provides the student and experienced user with the menu structure we all wish we had when using Mathematica. "Joy" is really a terrific teaching and learning tool for college students of science and engineering, and a great way to bring great math software into the hands of high school students. It's a "Joy" for me and my son, and it will work for you too.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!!!
Review: A wonderful book! Maple has been described as "the force" in CAS with Mathematica described as "the dark force". This wonderful book brings Mathematica into the light.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!!!
Review: A wonderful book! Maple has been described as "the force" in CAS with Mathematica described as "the dark force". This wonderful book brings Mathematica into the light.