math software

[cameroth]

Last year i used Mathmatica a lot for my calc 1 and 2 classes and i liked it a lot. After the initial learning stage, it was a real help. This year, in one of my classes, we need to use MATLAB rather than Mathematica, and it seems a more complicated program. Is it worth learning how to use this program (i got it on my computer for the class), or is Mathematica a better tool for college type math/engineering work.

Thanks.

cameroth

[j4ck]

They are both "industry standards", so to speak. Since I do Physics graduate work, I come in to contact with people from different mathematical backgrounds and depending on what undergraduate program they attended, they are more comfortable with Mathematica, or Maple, or Matlab. I have never used Matlab, but my impression is that it is more suitable for rigorous mathematical work than Mathematica or Maple (although this is probably a debatable point). I know the Mathematics department at my undergraduate school was more prone to make use of Matlab than Mathamatica, for example.

[palloco]

Well, in my university we only use Matlab(in every scientific careers: mathematics, physics, chemistry, chemical engineering and informatic, although I know that in physics some people still use Mathematica). I had not used other programs but Matlab has simulink, which is useful for any engineering project.