Wolfram Mathematica

About Wolfram Mathematica

The thing that separates this from a numerical package is that it works symbolically first. An integral is solved as an expression rather than approximated, an equation is rearranged and simplified rather than solved for a single value, and a numeric answer is produced at the end only when one is asked for and to whatever precision is requested. That ordering avoids the accumulated floating point error that a purely numeric approach carries from the first step.

The notebook interface is the second half of the design. Code, output, plots, formatted mathematics and explanatory text all live in the same document, arranged in a cell hierarchy that collapses into sections. A finished notebook is simultaneously the working program and the write up, which is why it ends up used for teaching material and technical reports as much as for the calculation itself.

The function library is unusually broad for one system: linear algebra, differential equations, optimisation, statistics and probability distributions, signal and image processing, graph theory, number theory, geometry, and a large curated data collection covering physical constants, chemical properties, geographic and astronomical data available as first class values rather than as tables to look up.

Visualisation is built into everything rather than bolted on. Two and three dimensional plots, contour and vector fields, and interactive constructions where a slider drives a parameter and the graphic updates live. Notebooks export to document and presentation formats, and the language itself deploys to standalone code for anything that needs to run outside the interface.

What is included in this build

• Symbolic algebra and calculus with exact results before any numeric approximation
• Arbitrary precision numerics with error tracking through a calculation
• Notebook documents mixing code, output, formatted mathematics, plots and prose
• Broad function library spanning algebra, analysis, statistics, optimisation and graph theory
• Curated built-in data collections available as first class values
• Two and three dimensional visualisation with interactive parameter controls
• Image and signal processing operating on the same expression model as everything else
• Export to document and presentation formats plus standalone deployment

Changed in version 15.0.1

• Faster symbolic simplification on large expressions
• Improved performance of the numerical differential equation solvers
• Additional functions added to the statistics and optimisation areas
• Updated built-in data collections
• Reduced notebook load times on documents with many embedded graphics

Installation walkthrough

These steps assume a clean machine. If a previous release of the same application is present, deal with that first, since an overlapping install is the most common cause of a setup that stops halfway.

1. Check free disk space first, since the bundled data collections are substantial.
2. Disable real-time protection until the installation has completed.
3. Extract the archive to a short folder path with no spaces.
4. Run setup as administrator and accept the default installation folder.
5. Launch once and set the notebook default directory before starting real work.

System requirements and file details

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