Labs and the Mathematica software suite #

Labs will be a chance for us to apply the topics to (hopefully) interesting questions whose solutions use multivariate calculus. We will use the Mathematica software suite for our computations. Besides using it for labs, you should feel free to use it for visualization and computational tasks that arise in the course.

Access to Mathematica #

There are two ways you can use Mathematica. The first is via a free Wolfram account. When you sign up, make sure to use your Bowdoin email; our site license entitles you to a few more computational tools and storage. If you have access to a laptop, you can also follow the student instructions on this page to install your own version of Mathematica.

Using Mathematica #

Our programming skills will develop over the course of the semester, but there are two resources at your disposal that will make your initial work with Mathematica slightly more friendly:

• I made a short video about the basics of this software suite. Start here and you will be able to make simple computations and create basic graphs.

• If you would like to explore Mathematica more fully, take some time to work through the Fast introduction for math students. If you do, you will be able to use this tool throughout the semester to help with our course.