Hi all,

I've been re-learning some math, and am thinking of buying a mathematics software package such as Mathematica or MATLAB. Does anyone have a recommendation? I'm looking for usability and a lot of versatility.

I'm leaning heavily against a calculator due to screen size limitations.

Mathematica can be purchased for $295 for a home version, and they offer a discount for upgrades. My husband has a very, very old version (2.x), so we might be able to upgrade.

From what I've seen on the Wolfram site, I like Mathematica the best. But I haven't used it, and was wondering if anyone here has an opinion.

Val

Matlab and Mathematica have very different capabilities. How would you be using the software?

I like Matlab for data analysis and scripting. Mathematica is very useful as a solver.

Check a local college/uni bookstore-- see if they'll let you grab a package with a STUDENT discount. (You could always fib a bit and say that it's for your child.)


This can save you as much as 70-80% off of even "home" prices.

I'm only moderately familiar with Mathematica, and my experience is likely just as old as your old version of it. LOL... It's always been both powerful and versatile, I'll say that.

We broke down and got DD a TI-84SE anyway, since many courses beyond algebra now require them. It has proven useful to her, even if I don't have a clue how to use it. Most modern math tutorials/help assumes use of the TI graphing calculators, much to my astonishment.

DreamCalc is a down-loadable 'virtual' version of the TI-84.

I know so little about MATLAB that I can't say anything one way or another about it.

Problem solving using calculus and possibly other forms of maths. I got the idea that you just wrote from looking at marketing material for both packages. Thanks.

Any other info/ideas greatly appreciated.




Yes, the book I'm using assumes that you have a TI-84 and gives directions for same.

I'm drawing graphs on paper at this point...which isn't ideal by any means. Though it does help give a feel for the functions.

Octave is free and has much of the functionality of Matlab. Have you considered it? For statistical analysis, R is good and free.

For symbolic work, Maxima is free, but it is less powerful than Mathematica.

For graphing functions two of many choices are Excel (or some free spreadsheet program such as the one in OpenOffice) or the free program gnuplot, widely used by scientists.

Not doing statistical analysis for this need.

I tried Excel; it's too clunky and doesn't have the versatility I need. I'll look at gnuplot.



Val

My students aren't allowed to use Excel for graphing. It is so clunky it leads to bad science.

I'd never heard of Octave. It looks like it might serve.

If you're graphing simple data sets, then I'd recommend Origin and Kaleidagraph, though neither are free. (Big data sets need something more hefty.) If you're graphing functions, then Mathematica might be the right thing, though I don't use it to do that.