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If R is a programming language that knows how to do statistics, then Mathematica would be a programming language that knows how to do math. It has built in sup
by cschmidt 13y ago
If R is a programming language that knows how to do statistics, then Mathematica would be a programming language that knows how to do math. It has built in support for just about every kind of math I've ever needed. It is very good at doing symbolic algebra, which I use quite frequently. It can do symbolic calculus (taking derivatives and integration), which I've also used extensively. Supposedly it can compute every one of those symbolic integrals in the big, fat integral table books they have at the library. The programming language can be used various ways, but it is most naturally used with a functional approach. The "Map" function is frequently used, and I naturally end up using anonymous functions quite a bit. I also like the graphics package, and find it quite intuitive to build up complex plots. I prefer it to matplotlib or R's graphics. (That said, some of that is just my years of experience.) There's a lot in there.
- cschmidt 13y agoAs a very simple example of that, you use variables that behave like mathematical unknowns. When I run the following line of Mma code, x, y, and z are undefined. It finds values for these unknowns. That's kind of different than many languages. Solve[{x + y + z == 3, y + x == 4, z + y == 7}, {x, y, z}] gives: {{x -> -4, y -> 8, z -> -1}}