MIT 3.016 Fall 2010

Laboratory 0

Overview

This lab aims to give students a basic understanding of Mathematica. You will learn how to assign variables, use rule application, and make basic plots.

Tasks

Using the Help Browser

1.) Find the description of mathematica’s function Integrate. Evaluate the first few basic examples.

2.)  What are the options that can be passed to the Integrate function?

Assigning variables:

1.) Assign aVariable to be equal to the value of Pi.

2.) Assign anExpression to be equal to ((Cos[aVariable x y])^2).

Plots and rule application:

1.) Find the Plot3D page in the help browser and make a plot of Plot3D of anExpression with x ranging from 0 to aVariable/2 and y ranging from 0 to 2*aVariable.

2.) What is the result of making anotherExpression = anExpression /. y-> 6?

3.) Explain the correspondance between Plot[anotherExpression, {x,0,Pi}] and Plot3D[anotherExpression,{x,0,Pi},{y,0,Pi}] .

Annotating your work

1.) Make a “Title Cell” with a text format just like the “Laboratory 0” above.