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need help with the basics of Mathematica

Posted 9 years ago

As my computer intermittently crashed on me, and not sure if this is the correct section for this post... I need help to learn mathematica so I can do an assignment that I said I would do for english: Write a short introduction user manual for mathematica. I am still in the infancy of learning mathematica and need help to learn the software, more than writing the user manual. If you could help me not only understand the Wolfram language, and Mathematica I would be more than happy to share my finished product with everyone for free so that no one else struggles with learning mathematica like I am. I just find the current user help documentation a little confusing, and have not spent enough time to figure it all out. While I can only submit my own writing for a Mathematic manual for my english class, I figured that we could create an interesting and friendly user manual formate that can be used for a solid introduction to mathematica.

I first need ideas of what would be important for the new user to know. If you could please post suggestions.

I hope that you can support me, and that we can create a good user manual for everyone.

Jonathon Hazelton

6 Replies
Posted 9 years ago

A farmer buys 100 animals for $100.00. The animals include at least one cow, one pig, and one chicken, but no other kind. If a cow costs $10.00, a pig costs $3.00, and a chicken costs $0.50, how many of each did he buy? Please show me the best way to set this out in Mathematica

POSTED BY: Owen Parker

This has really helped me, I now have a good Idea of where to start with the assignment, and how to go about it. Thanks for the advice.

This has really helped me, I now have a good Idea of where to start with the assignment, and how to go about it. Thanks for the advice.

A "bottoms up" approach to Mathematica could be to start with numbers (as there are multiple types), move up to lists, then discuss pattern matching as an introduction to rules and functions.

POSTED BY: Frank Kampas

So the user manual is simple for basics of language structure... The problem that I find with the current documentation that accompanies mathematica is that is it choppy and has no flow linking it together. This causes confusion in my mind and needs to be corrected. While there are currently user manuals that can be purchased I have to write one for me english class. So I'll start looking at the documentation and writing the user manual.

Mathematica can be taught on quite a few different levels, depending on the background of who is learning it and why. If the problem is to use existing functions (as if Mathematica were a more powerful replacement for a TI calculator) in a limited domain, the best approach would be to walk the user through several typical examples. Even there it is possible to fail by covering too many options, and not having enough laboratory work. Think of this approach as “lumping”: easy to learn, limited domain of applicability. The opposite approach would be “splitting”, and that is the approach used by Maeder in his various Mathematica books. As with most “splitting” approaches, it has a broad domain of applicability, but is not easy to learn unless you like abstract mathematics. Maeder presented the basic Mathematica language first, then showed a few general applications (integration, differentiation, numerical calculations) as example. Very good, but apparently few actually read his books and the current tutorial approach is not splitting. The current approach seems to be demonstrations of features of particular features or modules. Good, but is a “lumping” approach that leaves the student with the ability to do specific things but not generalize.

So: Recommend that you pick some small subset of Mathematica, say basic arithmetic, maybe basic arithmetic using 2D matrices (an Excel subset). Decide who will be learning from it (first year Accounting students, perhaps). Then, write a short manual teaching the specific subject to the specific audience. As an extension, you might try showing how to make histograms, make plots, or how to include dates. Remember, this is just an English paper. You’re showing off the English, and you have to get a subject complex enough to show off your ability to teach, but simple enough to fit into available work hours. Mathematica is a lot like reality – however well you describe it, your description will be incomplete, so draw lines and don’t cross them.

POSTED BY: Bill Lewis
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