Mathematica: A Practical Approach

by
Nancy Blachman
Published by Prentice-Hall

ISBN 0-13-563826-7

What readers say about this book.

``It can be a formidable challenge to learn or teach Mathematica, but Nancy Blachman's new book gives a nuts-and-bolts approach that will make the task easier... Casual Mathematica users will find the book a useful refresher... Educators who choose to use or teach with Mathematica in their course work will find this book an invaluable addition to their library.''
from a book review in The Mathematica Journal, Volume 2, Issue 1, 1992
by Dr. Wolfgang Christian
Associate Professor of Physics and Director of the Scientific
Computation Center at Davidson College
``Nancy Blachman's book opens up the world of Mathematica. She has a down-to-earth lucid style of writing and real experience with the system. This belongs on your bookshelf.''
William R. Hearst III
Editor and Publisher
The San Francisco Examiner
``This book gave me a great boost up the Mathematica learning curve. It's a tremendous resource of practical examples, and a valuable reference that I turn to again and again.''
Paul R. McGill
Research Engineer
Stanford University

Whether you are just starting out with the program, or you're an experienced user, in my unbiased opinion what you need to know to harness Mathematica's full potential is in Mathematica: A Practical Approach.

From the Preface

You will see through actual patterns of usage how Mathematica can help you to simply such tasks as

manipulating expressions
visualizing functions and data
writing functions and packages
importing and exporting data
using Mathematica's powerful pattern-matching capabilities
defining and using pure functions

Can't you learn Mathematica from Stephen Wolfram's book Mathematica: A System for Doing Mathematics by Computer? Yes, but it's a bit like learning English from a dictionary. As the definitive reference for Mathematica, Wolfram's book describes all the functions built into the program. On the other hand, my book focuses on how to use Mathematica. It provides examples of useful constructs and functions, problem sets as well as their solutions. It also describes features available on specific versions of Mathematica. In my book, I strive to show the versatility of the program as well as its limitations. This book is intended to get you up to speed quickly.

I has been giving workshops in Mathematica to engineers, scientists, and mathematicians across the country. I has put those years of experience into this easy-to-understand Mathematica tutorial book.

It answers a variety of commonly asked questions like:

How do I instruct Mathematica to calculate results to 30 places of precision?
How can I label a plot with the command used to generate the plot
Why does FindRoot not always give me the nearest root to the starting value?
What should I do when my code doesn't work like I expect it to?

Mathematica: A Practical Approach is conveniently divided into 3 sections -- each with its own special focus and practical tips to help you work effectively with and program in Mathematica.

Part I is ideal for the novice. It shows ways to work with Mathematica interactively. You will see how to: access on-line help, give instructions to Mathematica, utilize its numerical, symbolic, and graphical capabilities.
Part II covers programming. This section: delivers need-to-know information on the most frequently used constructs for writing functions, shows you how to write your own functions, describes both procedural and rule-based techniques for programming, illustrates mechanisms for importing, exporting, and formatting data and expressions, and provides guidelines for writing a Mathematica package.
Part II includes answers to the odd-numbered problems and vital information on Mathematica. For example, here you'll find: a listing of commands organized by what they do, a directory of packages distributed with Mathematica, handy information about the Notebook Front End, and a list of other important references on Mathematica.

MATHEMATICA: A PRACTICAL APPROACH is considered by many to be the standard introductory text on Mathematica.

Information for Ordering the Book


Pages: 384
List price: $35
Publisher:  Prentice Hall
Title: Mathematica:  A Practical Approach
Author: Nancy Blachman
ISBN: 0-13-563826-7

This book can be purchased at your local technical bookstore or directly from Variable Symbols, Inc., 6537 Chabot Road, Oakland, CA 94618-1618, 510-652-8462, fax 510-652-8461.

This book has been translated into Dutch, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.


Part I:  Introduction to  Mathematica                       1
Chapter 1:  Getting Started with  Mathematica               3
Chapter 2:  Numerical Capabilities                         23
Chapter 3:  Algebraic or Symbolic Capabilities             45
Chapter 4:  Graphics                                       65
Chapter 5:  Getting Around with  Mathematica              107

Part II:  Programming                                     115
Chapter 6:  List Manipulation                             117
Chapter 7:  Assignments and Rules                         137
Chapter 8:  Data Types                                    155
Chapter 9:  Writing Functions                             167
Chapter 10:  Local Variables & Procedural Programming     181
Chapter 11:  Pattern Maching                              191
Chapter 12:  Anonymous (Pure) Function                    203
Chapter 13:  Traps, Pitfalls, and Debugging               211
Chapter 14:  Input and Output                             229
Chapter 15:  Packages                                     247

Part III:  Appendices
Appendix A:  Answers to the Exercises                     269
Appendix B:  Bibliography                                 309
Appendix C:  Commands                                     313
Appendix D:  Directories of the  Mathematica Packages     323
Appendix E:  Electronic Information                       331
Appendix F:  The Front End                                335
Appendix G:  Glossary                                     341
Appendix H:  Help                                         345
Appendix I:  Index                                        349
Appendix J:  Just What More?                              365

Nancy Blachman / www.VariableSymbols.com / May 17, 2003