Mathematica can do Fourier and Laplace transforms, calculate roots, limits and residues, fit curves to data and find power series. Mathematica may be used as a comprehensive library of special functions and statistical distributions. Extensive graphics capabilities are also available, enabling the user to do two and three dimensional plots and parametric plots. It is also possible to generate a sequence of plots for values of a time 't' which may be combined to generate moving animation. To solve complex problems Mathematica provides facilities for creating user defined functions and even writing extensive programs.
Input can be in a text based or symbolic form using palletes accessed by the computer mouse.
Mathematica may be of use in the preparation of documents for printing as it is capable of generating high quality typeset output. It is also particularly well suited for creating graphics to appear on a webpage or within a LaTeX document. Accessing the Software You may access Mathematica from your rainbow command prompt. Once you enter Mathematica you may immediately begin to type commands. The program has a tendency to be picky about syntax so you should be careful to mimic the examples closely until you begin to see what is optional.