In this chapter we are going to consider the capabilities of the Mathcad symbolic processor. It enables you to solve most math problems analytically, without having to use numeric methods and, consequently, without introducing any calculation errors. In the initial section of this chapter we will briefly consider the ways of performing symbolic calculations in the Mathcad editor ( see Section 5.1), and then we will proceed with a discussion of how to use symbolic calculations for solving specific tasks. Mathcad lets you perform a wide range of analytical conversions, such as algebraic and matrix operations ( see Section 5.2), main operations of mathematical analysis ( see Section 5.3), and calculations of integral function conversions ( see Section 5.4).

It should be noticed that the techniques of most symbolic calculations are also covered in the third and the fourth parts of this book, during the discussion on solutions of specific calculation tasks. Finally, we will conclude the discussion by describing several practical examples of how to perform efficient math symbolic calculations ( see Section 5.5).