A Mathematica Primer for Physicists

"…an excellent text for either a short course or self-study… Professor Napolitano has figured out what students really need, and found a way to deliver it… I have found everything he writes to be worthy of my serious attention…"
—Peter D. Persans, Professor of Physics and Director, Center for Integrated Electronics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Learn how to use Mathematica quickly for basic problems in physics. The author introduces all the key techniques and then shows how they’re applied using common examples. Chapters cover elementary mathematics concepts, differential and integral calculus, differential equations, vectors and matrices, data analysis, random number generation, animation, and visualization.

• Written in an appealing, conversational style
• Presents important concepts within the framework of Mathematics
• Gives examples from frequently encountered physics problems
• Explains problem-solving in a step-by-step fashion

Jim Napolitano is professor and chair in the Department of Physics at Temple University. He is the author of other textbooks, including co-author with Alistair Rae of Quantum Mechanics, Sixth Edition, also published by Taylor & Francis / CRC Press.

“"...an excellent text for either a short course or self-study... Professor Napolitano has figured out what students really need, and found a way to deliver it... I have found everything he writes to be worthy of my serious attention..." --Peter D. Persans, Professor of Physics and Director, Center for Integrated Electronics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute”

"…an excellent text for either a short course or self-study… Professor Napolitano has figured out what students really need, and found a way to deliver it… I have found everything he writes to be worthy of my serious attention…"
—Peter D. Persans, Professor of Physics and Director, Center for Integrated Electronics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Jim Napolitano is Professor of Physics at Temple University. His undergraduate degree is in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he earned his PhD in Physics at Stanford University. For the first ten years of his career, he was on the staffs at Argonne National Laboratory and Jefferson Laboratory, but has been a Physics faculty member at Rensselaer and Temple for more than 25 years.

Professor Napolitano has taught courses at all level, from introductory physics, to intermediate and upper level theoretical and experimental physics, and graduate quantum mechanics. His research field is Experimental Nuclear Physics, and has published many papers in the Physical Review, Physical Review Letters, and other journals. In 2016 he shared the Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize with his collaborators on the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in the Division of Nuclear Physics in 2011, is a member of the Physical Review C Editorial Board, and serves on or chairs several review panels in the field of Nuclear and High Energy Physics.

This book offers the most concise and approachable guide for quickly getting into Mathematica and using it for solving common problems. The author addresses a wide range of problems, including numerical calculations, animation, and visualization tools. Each chapter begins with simple commands, and then shows how to apply them. The goal is to give the essentials necessary for readers to get started, without getting bogged down in unnecessary details. The writing is clear, crisp, and conversational, making it accessible and easy for the reader to follow.

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