The Parts of This Book
If at all possible, you should read this book in conjunction with using an actual Mathematica TE system. When you see examples in the book, you should try them out on your computer.
You can get a basic feeling of what Mathematica TE does by looking at the "Tour of Mathematica TE" in Section 4.1. You may find it useful to try out examples from the Tour with your own copy of Mathematica TE.
Whatever your background, you should make sure to look at the first three chapters in Part 1 before you start to use Mathematica TE on your own. These sections describe the basics that you need to know in order to use Mathematica TE at any level.
Parts 1 and 2, Basic Mathematics and More Mathematics, show you how to do many different kinds of computations with Mathematica TE. If you are trying to do a specific calculation, you will often find it sufficient just to look at the sections that discuss the features of Mathematica TE you need to use. A good approach is to try and find examples in the book that are close to what you want to do.
The emphasis in the first two parts is on using the basic functions that are built into Mathematica TE to carry out various different kinds of mathematical computations at the high school and college level.
Part 3, The Mathematica TE Language, on the other hand, discusses the basic structure and principles that underlie all of Mathematica TE. Rather than describing a sequence of specific features, Part 3 takes a more global approach. If you want to learn how to create your own Mathematica TE functions, you should read Part 3.
Part 4, Graphics and Sound, amplifies the graphical capabilities of Mathematica TE and shows you how to produce sound. If you want to customize your graphics, this is where you can learn to control the plotting and drawing functions introduced in Parts 1 and 2.
The Interludes, which follow each of Parts 1, 2, and 3, describe important special topics: lists, packages, statistics, reading and writing files and data, and some others.
The main parts in this book are intended to be pedagogical, and can meaningfully be read in a sequential fashion. The Appendix, however, is intended solely for reference purposes. Once you are familiar with Mathematica TE, you will probably find the list of functions in the Appendix the best place to look up details you need.
