The MATHEMATICA ® Book, Version 3 [Paperback]

Stephen Wolfram (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 13, 1996 | ISBN-10: 052158888X | ISBN-13: 978-0521588881 | Edition: 3

With over a million users around the world, the Mathematica ® software system created by Stephen Wolfram has defined the direction of technical computing for nearly a decade. With its major new document and computer language technology, the new version, Mathematica 3.0 takes the top-power capabilities of Mathematica and make them accessible to a vastly broader audience. This book presents this revolutionary new version of Mathematica. The Mathematica Book is a must-have purchase for anyone who wants to understand the revolutionary opportunities in science, technology, business and education made possible by Mathematica 3.0. This encompasses a broad audience of scientists and mathematicians; engineers; computer professionals; quantitative financial analysts; medical researchers; and students at high-school, college and graduate levels. Written by the creator of the system, The Mathematica Book includes both a tutorial introduction and complete reference information, and contains a comprehensive description of how to take advantage of Mathematica's ability to solve myriad technical computing problems and its powerful graphical and typesetting capabilities. Like previous editions, the book is sure to be found well-thumbed on the desks of many technical professionals and students around the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Everything about Mathematica and the way it has been developed is impressive ... it is the most comprehensive maths package available today that covers both numeric and symbolic computation. Mathematica 3.0 is simply the new standard of excellence.' Mike James, Scientific Computing World

'I recommend this text to all Mathematica users.' Mike Denham, Computers and Chemistry

'What Mathematica has done is to usher in a new era of fully commercialized technical software.' Karyll Lake, Physics World

'This is a superb text which is an absolute must for anyone who uses Mathematica 3.0.' Assembly Automation

Book Description

'Everything about Mathematica and the way it has been developed is impressive ... it is the most comprehensive maths package available today that covers both numeric and symbolic computation. Mathematica 3.0 is simply the new standard of excellence.' Mike James, Scientific Computing World

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1429 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 3 edition (July 13, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052158888X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521588881
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 9.1 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential reference for Mathematica users, January 28, 2004

By 

William C Haneberg (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mathematica Book, Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

It's a shame that the spotlight review for this book is a tirade by a frustrated student who envies Stephen Wolfram's ability to make money. So much for Amazon's ability to separate the wheat from the chaff!

Here's my opinion: I've been a Mathematica user since 1989 and have found the various versions of the book to be essential references. Mathematica has become an indispensable tool in my work as a teacher, researcher, and consultant, and I've even written a book about Mathematica applications in my field. If I were limited to only one piece of software, this would be it (ok, an operating system would be good, too). Maybe it's because I learned to progam by writing mainframe FORTRAN programs on keypunch cards but, whatever the reason, I disagree with just about all of the comments in the negative review. I am continually amazed at the things I can do using Mathematica and, in general, how quickly and easily I can do them.

Sure, a person needs some mathematical saavy to get the most out of Mathematica. Maybe that was the negative reviewer's problem. The reason that the particular inequality of interest to him or her isn't specifically addressed may be that almost anyone with rudimentary knowledge of Mathematica, some insight into problem solving, and a curious spirit can easily think of at least three or four ways to accomplish the task at hand. I looked at his or her inequality, thought about it for a minute or two while I had a sip of coffee, and then made a contour plot in a few seconds. No need at all for Calculus Whiz, although people just learning calculus may indeed find it helpful.

It is, though, important to distinguish between the quality of the book and the need to buy a copy. Mathematica does come with both digital and paper copies of the book, so many people may not need to buy an extra copy. If you don't need one, don't buy one. It might be nice to have one, though, if your old copy has worn out from heavy use or if your only access to Mathematica is via a network and site license. People enrolled in the Premier subscription plan received an upgrade to version 5 but no paper copy of the book, so they might want one as well.

The bottom line is this: The book is outstanding and an essential reference for anyone using Mathematica. That's why I give it 5 stars. If you need or want a paper copy, then buy one. If not, don't.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the definitive guide to the Mathematica software, May 18, 2003

By 

Duane Williams (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The MATHEMATICA ® Book, Version 4 (Hardcover)

I bought the 2nd edition of this book back in the early 90s when a student edition of the software was available to me inexpensively for the Mac. The book was very helpful in learning how to use the Mathematica program. There are examples galore and many graphical illustrations. As other reviewers have said, the whole book comes online with the software and you can easily search it, but I liked having an offline copy too. The later versions are just extensions of earlier ones.

It is easy to learn how to do simple examples from the book. Suppose you want to plot the expression |x-y| + |x| + |y|. On page ix, before the book really begins, there is an example of the syntax to make a plot: Plot3D[ Sin[x y], {x,0,Pi}, {y,0,Pi} ]. In chapter 1 (p. 49) you learn that the absolute value is given by the Abs[x] function.

So, you can type Plot3D[ Abs[x-y] + Abs[x] + Abs[y], {x,-2,2}, {y,-2,2}] to get a nice 3D plot of this expression, with x and y in the range -2 to 2. If you want to see a plot where the value of the expression is <= 2, you can restrict the Z range of the plot, as illustrated in chapter 1 (p. 157), like this:
Plot3D[ Abs[x-y] + Abs[x] + Abs[y], {x,-2,2}, {y,-2,2}, PlotRange->{0,2} ].

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent Reference, Poor Tutorial, August 2, 2004

By 

Mike Blaszczak (Mercer Island, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mathematica Book, Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

As other reviewers have mentioned, the most important thing to know about this book is that it is included in electronic form with Mathematica. Some people think that's a bad thing, and if you do, too, then this book certianly isn't for you.

If you're like me, you sometimes prefer to have a printed copy of documentation at your disposal. The index is useful, and the book is beautifully bound and typeset. If you like hardcopy references, you won't be disappointed in this title.

The book starts out as a tutorial; it's possible to use the first 100 or so pages as an end-to-end introduction to most of Mathematica's features. The tutorial is easy to follow, though some of the steps might not be completely clear or as detailed as they should be. For example, some formula entry features aren't described until after they're used for the first time. Some functions are invoked before their description is shown, too.

Perhaps worst of all, some features of the product are left unexplored while other features (which seem quite orthogonal to the discussion at hand) are mentioned more than in passing.

A great example of the scope and flow problems is at the start of the chapter about Mathematica on different computers. I'd expect this section t odiscuss the difference beteen the Kernel text interface and the noteboook interface, but it doesn't; it sticks to the notebook interface, and doesn't explain how I might use the kernel interface directly. It mentions the Mathematica programming API, and even includes a code fragment demonstrating it -- but then offers no other description of the API. The text doesn't even mention where I can go to read more details, if I'm interested, later on!

As a reference, the book is very useful. For a given function or comand, the available options and features are described, though they're not demonstrated. Because of the great index and logical layout, it's not hard to find related features or similar functions.

However, the book disappoints me by failing to spend much time describing how features can best be used together. For example, I can use Plot[] against a certain expression and range to draw a graph. I've found I can use Table[] with the same expression and range to produce a table of values and store it in a variable. Why can't I, then, use Plot[] against the variable (with the values I produced) and the range in order to plot the same series?

Because the book doesn't do much to help the reader combine the different features and comamnds into something useful, it falls short as a tutorial and could be better as a reference. This is disappointing enough that I'm on the verge of scoring it at three stars.