|
Elementary and special mathematical functions play a significant role in
mathematics, the natural sciences, engineering and other fields. These
functions were an important aspect of Mathematica when it was
originally designed, and they continue to be significant as Mathematica
evolves. Among all existing software programs, Mathematica
has the most complete numeric and symbolic implementation of mathematical
functions. At the same time, the world of special mathematical functions is
far too complex to be completely represented in a single computer program.
Literature on special functions has been available for some time. However,
the vast majority of special function literature predates the computer
mathematics age, thus having its limitations. The Mathematical Functions Site
was developed to address these limitations and to provide the
scientific community with a valuable resource.
The site was designed to be similar in nature to existing handbooks that
detail special mathematical functions, but there are a number of
differences between the Mathematical Functions Site and these handbooks.
- The site is designed to be easy, straightforward, efficient and
also expandable as more material becomes available. No prior knowledge
of Mathematica is required to take advantage of the material on the
site.
- Contributions from researchers are welcome to
help expand the scope of the site.
- The site is based on Mathematica notebook technology that
enables
the automatic generation of different presentation media. Current formats
include HTML, PDF and Mathematica notebooks.
|
