How to Learn Mathematica: Second Assignment

Second Assignment: Notebooks

Mathematica consists of a Kernel, which is the name for the central processing engine that you don't see, and the Notebook, or Notebook Front End, which is the typical user interface to the Kernel. The Notebook, created by Theodore Gray (http://theodoregray.com/), is a highly developed and unique graphical user interface (GUI), like the interface to Unix, Windows, Macintosh, or any common browser, especially Google Chrome. You need to acquire some familiarity with the basic symbols and operations in the Notebook to operate Mathematica and access its universe of functionality.

Here is an excellent introduction to Mathematica Notebooks:

guide/NotebookBasics

This tutorial explains basic Notebook formatting, which resembles style sheets in a word processor:

tutorial/NotebooksAsDocuments

Exercises

1. Try each function in this guide: guide/SelectingAndTypingInNotebooks.

2. Try each Notebook shortcut in this guide: guide/NotebookShortcuts.

3. Scan this: guide/NotebookFormattingAndStyling