2007 September 11 / E-Mail Me
Carleton College Math 111 01-02, Fall 2007, Prof. Joshua R. Davis
Mathematica is a computer program available on all computers in all Carleton computer labs. For example, you can use it in the computer labs CMC 301 and CMC 201, which are open until 1 AM.
Once you're sitting at a computer that has Mathematica installed, here's what you do. Log in, open a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer, and go to the class web page at http://people.carleton.edu/~jdavis/2007f111/. There you will see a file called "Tutorial 1". The actual name of the file is "111.01-02.tutorial1.nb". The ".nb" at the end stands for "notebook" — it indicates that the file is a Mathematica file.
If you click on this file in your web browser, it will probably look like garbage, because your browser doesn't know the Mathematica language. Instead, right-click (on Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows) or control-click (on Mac OS X with a one-button mouse) to save the file to your computer.
Depending on how your computer is set up, the file may have been saved with a ".txt" appended to the end of its name; if so, rename the file to get rid of the ".txt". Then, assuming that Mathematica is installed, you should be able to open the notebook file just by double-clicking it. If this doesn't work, then open the Mathematica program itself, go to the File menu, and open the file from there.
At that point, you should be viewing the Mathematica notebook. Follow the instructions there. I strongly encourage you to work with a friend.
If you have your own computer (running Mac OS X, Linux, or Windows) you can also install Mathematica on it and work from there. The official instructions are on this page. The instructions involve several steps, any one of which might hit a snag. Some students have had difficulty because they are trying to do them over Carleton's wireless network and they have not registered to use that network. Remember that you can always resort to a lab computer, or talk to me or the SCIC for some help. Anyway, once you have Mathematica installed, follow the directions in the preceding section to start working on Tutorial 1.