Help with Mathematica

Mathematica is an extremely powerful software to do analytical and numerical calculations. CU has a site license for Mathematica and it is installed on every ITS computer.

You can also install Mathematica on your own computer. Look at the instructions at ITS site Licensing

The download is large, so please get Mathematica installed on your own machine ASAP, you need it for homework #1, the second week of class!

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Getting started

Download and install mathematica.

Tutorials: We have a series of screencasts that provide a quick first introduction.
Also see the Mathematica website. If you have never used Mathematica, browse the offerings at  Mathematica tutorials - screen broadcasts.

I like the 2-part  Hands-on start to Mathematica  series. The  How-to pages have many good examples and are relatively easy to navigate. See the How to work with differential equations website for useful examples.

More tips from a local CU postdoc are here.


Physicists vs computers
Mathematica can do a lot of abstract calculations, like integrals,  solving differential equations, etc. But not all indefinite integral have analytic solutions, nor do all differential equations. In that case you have to specify numerical values for each constants, parameters you have and evaluate the answer numerically. If you want your result in MKS units, make sure that every parameter you specify is in MKS units. This is the engineering approach.  Physicists often come up with their own "units" for each problem. If there is a characteristic length scale in a problem, like the radius of the Earth when discussing satelite motion, it's much more convenient to measure everything in that unit instead of meters. We'll discuss this further  in different applications.

When you get frustrated
If you are new to Mathematica or numerical calculations, you might get overwhelmed and frustrated. This is normal. Take a breath and start again. You are smarter than the computer, so do not give up. You have to get over the initial barrier but after a while things will get easier and you will find yourself doing a lot of things with Mathematica.

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Phys 3320: Fall 2013,

Comments specifically for Homework #1:

1) Remember to hit SHIFT at the same time as return to get MMA to evaluate your expression.

2) Functions and commands in MMA always start with capital letters (like Plot[ ] or Sin[ ] or Sqrt[ ] or Pi)

3) The "Help" menu is very useful - go to "Documentation center", and search from there for whatever you're interested in.