On this page you will find information concerning where to find Mathematica, how to launch it in various places around campus, where to get the Computer Explorations for the Calculus course sequence, a few tips on how to learn about and get help using Mathematica, and an assortment of other miscellaneous items of a helpful nature, including some general advice on what to do if you're having trouble.

Alert: these pages are designed to be a useful resource for UMM Mathematica users, students and faculty alike. However, computers being what they are, things can change rapidly, and the little buggers also sometimes just plain misbehave. Please file a detailed report if the instructions offered here do not work. That said, complaints won't help much unless you are very specific about what you did, and what went wrong. Thanks!

By and large, you will not find Mathematica on the Windows machines on campus. However, it is installed on all of our Unix and Macintosh computers. Its primary home, however, is in the MRC 10 Mathematics Computer Lab.

Start Here:

• Questions and answers about software & hardware in the MRC 10 Computer Lab, including general Macintosh troubleshooting tips and a note about FoolProof Security.
• General information concerning the MRC 10 Computer Lab.

Specific Questions & Issues:

• How and to whom do I report problems or make requests?
  
  
• How do I launch Mathematica in MRC 10?
• How do I launch Mathematica in Behmler Hall, Briggs Library, the Student Center, or the ORL Lab?
• How do I use Mathematica on a unix machine like cda?
• How do I save my Mathematica files to a floppy?
• Where are the Calculus Computer Explorations on the campus network?
• What Mathematica resources are available?
• Mathematica isn't behaving properly. What should I do?
• Mathematica is complaining that it doesn't have enough memory to run. What should I do?
• Are there any compatibility issues between the Mac OS and Mathematica that I need to know about?
• Can I use Mathematica Fonts in my (Oz)TeX Files?
• Can I read Mathematica notebooks on the web or without installing the Mathematica application?

From the Macintosh desktop, just double-click on the Mathematica icon on the desktop. Alternately, select Mathematica in the "Aliases" submenu of the Apple Menu in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.

Click and hold the mouse on the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Navigating down to the "Aliases" folder, select the Mathematica icon.

(On a unix machine such as cda, you may launch Mathematica simply by typing "math" at the prompt. You won't, however, have the benefit of the friendly notebook interface.)

Now that you know how to launch Mathematica, what next? If a new notebook (the standard Mathematica document type) doesn't open by default when you launch, you can always create one by selecting "New" from the "File" menu.

Mathematica is also installed on cda. Because there are very few machines on campus with a graphical X-Windows interface to cda, you will have to make do with Mathematica's command-line interface. To start Mathematica on cda, simply type "math" at the prompt. Mathematica will fire up, and you can enter commands as usual from there. (You will not, however, have the benefit of the nice notebook interface available on the Macintosh.)

On most of the campus network Macintoshes, you are no longer allowed to save files anywhere but to removeable disks such as floppies or zip disks — and the G3's in MRC 10 don't have zip drives! (Math didn't spring for them.) An exception to this "no-save" policy is in MRC 10, where you are permitted to save to the "Student Files" folder, in spite of the message telling you that you should save to a floppy disk. This is an important consideration because Mathematica notebooks can achieve considerable size if they have many graphics in them.

You may download the most recent (00-01) revision of the computer explorations directly from here. On a properly configured Macintosh browser they should automatically unstuff themselves into a folder called "Computer Explorations v.4 f". (If you are using Windows, or are using a Macintosh on which you are SURE that version 5 of Stuffit Expander is installed — it is not in MRC 10 — you should get the explorations here instead. Windows users should still be able to access the notebook files, which are essentially just text files. You will need, however, Aladdin's Stuffit Expander for Windows to unstuff the binhexed StuffIt archives.)

If you happen to be in MRC 10, the Computer Explorations are also on the computers there, in the "Calculus" folder at the root level of each lab machine's hard drive. When you open one, the computer will probably tell you that the file is locked, and that you will not be able to save any changes. This is true. However, you will be able to work with the file, and save your work to a new file (on a removeable disk or in the "Student Files" folder) using the "Save As..." command from Mathematica's "File" menu. The Mac will ask for a removeable disk when you first "Save", but will permit you to navigate and save to "Student Files", from which you can later copy to a floppy.

You might begin with the excellent online Mathematica tutorials at Los Alamos and a downloadable Mathematica tutorial notebook. And, of course, your math instructor should be able to help you. However, Michael O'Reilly and Dave Roberts are the real Mathematica experts on campus, so ask them all the tough questions.

If you would like information about a specific Mathematica command, remember that you can always ask Mathematica itself! For example, for information on the Table command, just type in

?Table (and then, of course, Enter)

to get information about the Table command, and

??Table (and then Enter)

to get all the information Mathematica has to give you on a topic. (Be warned that Mathematica's online help can sometimes be a touch cryptic, however.)

Far greater detail may be found in the Mathematica book by by Mathematica's creator, Stephen Wolfram. There is a copy in MRC 10 (it usually hides in a corner, clamped to a big black thing), and you may also borrow a copy from Computing Services in Behmler Hall.

Finally, there are a couple of brief introductions to Mathematica which summarize many of the available Mathematica commands and how to use them.

First, there is Michael O'Reilly's Basic Introduction to Mathematica — you will find a hardcopy of it in the booklet entitled "Introduction to Mathematica and Computer Explorations and Aids" that comes with O'Reilly's Calculus Using Mathematica text. Alternately, you may prefer to work through an electronic version of the Basic Introduction; look above for the various places you can find it. Second, there are the various excellent online resources noted above. Third, the Mathematics Discipline owns a number of books on Mathematica that you might find helpful. Finally, your instructor may have handouts, summaries of Mathematica commands, or other resources to loan or suggest to you.

Mathematica is a powerful application. It can also be difficult. The most common causes of problems and unexpected behaviour with Mathematica are simple typos, or re-using a variable name that you have forgotten to Clear. If you have been creating many Plots, doing complex calculations, or have simply had a long session, it is also possible that Mathematica has run out of memory - have a look at the memory status bar to check. In any event, simply quitting and re-launching Mathematica can cure a host of ills. Remember, though, that Mathematica actually consists in two applications: the front end (the user interface,) and the kernel (which does all the dirty work.) It may be necessary to quit either or both of them separately to get Mathematica to behave normally again. (You can bring the kernel to the front in order to quit it using the "Application" menu in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.)

It is also possible that your Macintosh is low on memory; see the next item.

If you are having more specific kinds of trouble with Mathematica or any other aspect of the Macintoshes in MRC 10, please look over our help page on "Troubleshooting MRC 10". If your question is not answered through exploring the resources there, please file a report of your problems that is as specific and detailed as you can make it.

If you are having other kinds of trouble with Mathematica on a Macintosh elsewhere on campus, please contact Computing Services instead.

Recent versions of Mathematica are quite demanding. However, the MRC 10 lab machines are perfectly capable of running Mathematica. If you see error messages letting you know that Mathematica is low on memory or can't start because there isn't enough, try saving your work in all open applications, quitting everything (including Mathematica and the Mathematica kernel), and launch Mathematica again. Everything should run fine. If it doesn't, restart the machine you are working on. If that still doesn't clear things up, then you should file a report about the problem.

There have been a few, including a known incompatibility with Mac OS 8.X's Appearance Manage (which, however, does not lead to especially serious problems), and a printing issue under Mac OS 8.1-5. In general, however, the problems are minor and rare. Nevertheless, please file a report if you think you are seeing operating system-related issues.

Further platform-specific details can be found in Wolfram's Macintosh Support Area.

Yes, assuming that OzTeX is configured correctly, and that your System Folder has Wolfram's MathFonts installed in the Fonts folder. (The Macs in MRC 10 should be configured correctly already.) Once OzTeX is open, all you should have to do is go to OzTeXs "Config" menu and select "Add TeXSave Fonts". That will load the appropriate configuration file for documents created by Mathematica's "TeXSave" feature, and you should be able to TeX such documents normally from there.

If you are for some reason still using OzTeX 3.0, you can still TeX Mathematica's TeXSave documents. However, you must work a little. Download what you need here. You really should upgrade to OzTeX 4.0, however.

If you are trying to set up OzTeX on your personal computer to TeX your Mathematica TeXSave documents, you can see how Wolfram advises you do it here. However, there is a cleaner approach taking full advantage of OzTeX 4's local tex folders which you can learn about by studying the file "localtex:Configs:Add TeXSave Fonts" in the OzTeX folder on any of the machines in MRC 10, or by asking how on the oztex mailing list noted below.

Incidentally, you may find Gary Gray's excellent TeX/LaTeX on the Macintosh to be a useful TeX resource. For OzTeX-specific help, including an oztex-info mailing list, visit OzTeX's Home Page.

Yes, using Wolfram's MathReader application. It is a tool which enables users without Mathematica itself to view Mathematica notebooks, though of course one cannot interact with them in any way. To view Mathematica notebooks on the web, you can tell your browser to use MathReader as a helper application.