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Mathcad – what is it

Mathcad – what is it. A fancy calculator. A problem solving tool. A unit converter. An equation writer. We will explore pieces of all of these. Mathcad is a Windows type program. Menu bar across the top. Toolbars & buttons in other rows. Many of the tool palettes “float”.

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Mathcad – what is it

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  1. Mathcad – what is it A fancy calculator A problem solving tool A unit converter An equation writer We will explore pieces of all of these

  2. Mathcad is a Windows type program Menu bar across the top Toolbars & buttons in other rows Many of the tool palettes “float”

  3. Main use of Mathcad is for mathematical calculations(duh!) Write formulae using variables & numbers & math symbols

  4. Mathcad has a lot of pre-defined names that are very useful: c The speed of light g Acceleration due to gravity And a host of units, so many unit conversions are done automagically: m meter ft ft kg kilogram lb pound

  5. Mathcad Variable Names A string of characters (including numbers and some “special” characters (e.g. #, %, _, and a few more) Cannot start with a number Capitalization & spelling count!!! A1 is different from a1 Be careful not to conflict with predefined name (e.g. g = acceleration due to gravity, m = meter, etc. -- which we will discuss later) Be careful that variables and functions have different names

  6. Subscripts The “.” (period) starts a text subscript, which really is part of the variable name A1 is different from A1 The “[“ indicates an array subscript. Thus A1 indicates an element in the array A (it is the second element, as array subscripts start with 0 by default in Mathcad) And, unfortunately, the two are very difficult to tell apart when you just look at them. Avoid the superscript tool on the tool bar!

  7. To build equations, Mathcad has three or four types of equal signs Need to keep them straight and know when to use each!!!!

  8. Assignment: Type a “:” and see “:=“ Assigns value on right side to variable on left Evaluation: Type a “=“ and see a “=“ Evaluates expression on left and displays on right

  9. Type a “ctrl = “ and see a bold = sign Boolean Equal: Indicates a logical equivalence between the left and right sides (Don’t worry about the details of this, but watch for its use.) This is tough to see, but in Mcad the = sign is bold. Main use is in solving equations.

  10. Equivalence or replacement: Type a “~” and see three horizontal lines Causes expression on left to be replaced by expression on right everywhere in the worksheet Would cause all occurrences of “A” to be replaced by y2 + 3 We won’t use this one, but here for completeness

  11. And something to remember: Mathcad evaluates the worksheet from left to right and top to bottom every time the worksheet is evaluated. (unless you set the option to manual recalculation)

  12. Do some of the tutorials Click Help Tutorials Getting Started Primers do Entering Math Expressions thru Calculating with Variables.

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