Wolfram Computation Meets Knowledge

The Mathematica Story: A Scrapbook

Over Three Decades of Contributions to Invention, Discovery and Education

Kevin J. McCann, Associate Professor of Physics, UMBC

I have been using Mathematica since Version 2, but I really started using it in earnest with the introduction of the front end. For me this was a game changer. Now I could and do use Mathematica not only to carry out calculations, but to write them up as well. Over the years I have used Mathematica for research in acoustics, lidar, data analysis, and, now, general relativity. It is fair to say that without the help from Mathematica, neither my teaching nor my research would be where they are today.

In addition to research, I use Mathematica extensively in my teaching electrodynamics, classical mechanics, and computational physics. From the notes I hand out to the homework I assign, Mathematica is an essential tool.