Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Geek Speak => Topic started by: Pmb on 12/10/2013 07:08:52

Title: What's the best way to learn MATLAB and Mathematica?
Post by: Pmb on 12/10/2013 07:08:52

I'm considering two directions in life right now. Tutoring and going back to gradschool. There's a good chance now that I'll do both.

I'm in the process of shoring up my math and physics skills right now. I was wondering how many people here have experience using MATLAB and/or Mathematica? IF you do then can you tell me if this is something I should learn to prepare for these life directions?

I'm trying to learn MATLAB and Mathematica. Can someone recomend some online resources for learning how to use these programs? Thanks!

Title: Re: MATLAB and Mathematica
Post by: syhprum on 12/10/2013 11:36:24

Sorry I have both Mathematica and Matlab but only ever use  Mathematica for the most elementary of calculations

Title: Re: MATLAB and Mathematica
Post by: JP on 12/10/2013 12:56:07

I've used both extensively.  Mathematica is better for theory work, since it handles analytic formulae much better--it has powerful tools for carrying through computations entirely symbolically.  It is, however, slow and cumbersome to use for numerical simulations and works poorly as a programming language.  Matlab is just the opposite: it is cumbersome to use it for extensive analytic work, but is very similar to most programming languages in syntax (if you know how to code, Matlab takes some learning, but the basics are the same).  Matlab is also extremely good at discrete math simulations (everything is matrices or arrays of numbers). 

Title: Re: MATLAB and Mathematica
Post by: JP on 12/10/2013 12:58:03

As for learning both, the best way is to just google for what you're trying to do.  There's a lot on personal websites.  Both have very powerful help functions as well. 

For matlab, I use this a lot as well: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/  It has example code and files and a help forum.

Title: Re: MATLAB and Mathematica
Post by: chiralSPO on 12/10/2013 13:32:37

I used both in college--mathematica is better for algebra and graphics and matlab better for programming and matrices. Honestly, I didn't used either in grad school at all, but that was a chemistry program, so what do you expect?

Title: Re: MATLAB and Mathematica
Post by: Pmb on 13/10/2013 06:43:38

Quote from: JP

As for learning both, the best way is to just google for what you're trying to do. 

I'm going back to school and am required to learn MATLAB.  I believe that I first tried to go back a few years ago the professor wanted our answers to homework problems placed in MATLAB files. How do I Google that?

There's a lot on personal websites.  Both have very powerful help functions as well. 

Quote from: JP

For matlab, I use this a lot as well: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/  It has example code and files and a help forum.

Then that's what I'll do.

Do you think its safe to say that I should learn both before trying to go back to graduate school again?

Title: Re: What's the best way to learn MATLAB and Mathematica?
Post by: Povilas Vii on 11/11/2015 10:33:08

I got valuable advices from this homeworkhelponline.net, while solving my first Matlab project.  [O8)] With Mathematica the best pace is original Wolfram repository, now it's full of examples - more than you can read.. demonstrations.wolfram.com