Abstract
The facilities of Mathematica outlined in the previous chapter are those of a very useful pocket calculator. The additional feature that distinguishes computer algebra systems like Mathematica is that they can calculate with symbols (variables, letters, etc.). Some indication of what calculating with symbols means was given in the previous chapter in the handling of function values. Mathematica calculated √2 √3 as √6, and not 2.44949 as would be the case with a pocket calculator.
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© 1994 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Burkhardt, W. (1994). Term transformations. In: First Steps in Mathematica. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2089-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2089-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19875-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-2089-6
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