Mathematica Tutorial

Arithmetic

You can do arithmetic with Mathematica just as you would on an electronic calculator.

This is the sum of two numbers.

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Here the / stands for division, and the ^ stands for power.

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Spaces denote multiplication in Mathematica. The front end automatically replaces spaces between numbers with light gray multiplication signs.

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You can use a * for multiplication if you want to.

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You can type arithmetic expressions with parentheses.

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Spaces are not needed, though they often make your input easier to read.

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x^y	power
-x	minus
x/y	divide
x y z or xyz	multiply
x+y+z	add

Arithmetic operations in Mathematica.

Arithmetic operations in Mathematica are grouped according to the standard mathematical conventions. As usual, 2^3+4, for example, means (2^3)+4, and not 2^(3+4). You can always control grouping by explicitly using parentheses.

This result is given in scientific notation.

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You can enter numbers in scientific notation like this.

Or like this.

With Mathematica, you can perform calculations with a particular precision, usually higher than an ordinary calculator. When given precise numbers, Mathematica does not convert them to an approximate representation, but gives a precise result.

This gives the result in terms of rational numbers.

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This gives the approximate numerical result.

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This gives the approximate numerical result with 40 significant digits.

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