TABLE OF CONTENTS The first task you will face is finding where Mathematica resides in your computer s file system. If this is the first time you are using a computer in a classroom or lab, by all means ask your instructor for help. You are looking for Spikey, an icon that looks something like this:
When you have located the icon, double click it with your mouse. In a moment an empty window will appear. This is your Mathematica notebook; it is the environment where you will carry out your work.
The remainder of this chapter is a quick tutorial that will enable you to get accustomed to the syntax and conventions of Mathematica, and demonstrate some of its many features.
A Mathematica notebook is an interactive environment. You type a command (such as 2 + 2) and instruct Mathematica to execute it. Mathematica responds with the answer on the next line. You then type another command, and so on. Each command you type will appear on the screen in a boldface font. Mathematica s output will appear in a plain font.
| Entering Input | After typing a command, you enter it as follows:
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