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Discover Mathematica on the Raspberry Pi

22 January 2015

As part of the updated second edition of Raspberry Pi For Dummies, my co-author Mike Cook has written a great introduction to Mathematica, a maths-based application that's capable of creating some great mathematical art, among other things. Usually, Mathematica costs about $2,500, but there's a free version on your Raspberry Pi, so this highly exclusive software is now available for everyone to experiment with.

After we'd added chapters on Minecraft, Sonic Pi and RISC OS and updated the rest of the book (was that plug too shameless?), there wasn't room to include the Mathematica chapter in Raspberry Pi For Dummies. So we made it available for free too, as a downloadable PDF that you can read on screen or print out. It's gone through the same editorial process as the rest of the book.

Read it to discover how to use the Mathematica interface for calculations, how to plot functions, how to plot several functions on one graph, parametric plotting, and how you can make 3D graphics using Mathematica. You'll also discover how to make interactive mathematical art like this:

Screengrab from Mathematica showing a star with two sliders to controls its shape

Interactive 3D Art made using Mathematica on the Raspberry Pi

Download the free bonus chapter on Mathematica from Raspberry Pi For Dummies, 2nd edition (PDF)

If you make something you like, please send me your screenshots. It would be great to see what you're making with Mathematica.

Find out more about Raspberry Pi For Dummies here.

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