Mathematics Projects Class
Worksheets from Class
Here are the worksheets we have been using in class:
Google, Arxiv, and MathSciNet
Latex Figures
Latex Introduction
Mathematica
Matlab for Statistics
Matlab
PS Tricks
Student Contributions
Great Website for PSTricks: http://www.tex.uniyar.ac.ru/doc/pst_ug.pdf
It has alot of information on how to enter and what the different styles are for the PSTricks
-Lauren
Mathematics Projects Class
Class: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:45pm — 7:00pm in MAGC 1.208
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:00pm — 5:30pm in MAGC 3.202D
This course covers the tools of modern mathematics, and in the process of discussing these tools involves students completing a short Mathematics Project and Presentation. This wiki will cover some of the material students will need, and will also serve as a student edited pages for the class.
Class Schedule
For the most part questions regarding the software used in this class are best answered from your classmates and google.
LaTex
A major component of this course is learning to use the mathematical typesetting program LaTex. Your final project must be typeset using this software. Your final presentation should be typeset using either Beamer, Powerpoint, or Keynote.
Why use LaTex you ask? LaTex provides a clear and concise method of rigidly typesetting documents. It is particularly well suited to use for documents with a large amount of technical symbols not found in the standard pallet of computer fonts. It is somewhere between a program and a document; your code is compiled to create the typeset document.
It has the remarkable features:
- Platform Independence: with a few small issues the same LaTex code run on any machine (Linux, Apple or Windows) will produce exactly the same typeset document;
- Backward Compatibility: Documents written in 1986 are still compilable and editable today
- Plain Text: Document code is written in plain text
- Rigid Formatting: One can specify by units any measurements that are in the document which you need to.
Installing and Using LaTex in Linux
Installing LaTex in linux is as simple as installing the package "TexLive" which will include all of the tools you need.
You will then use your systems default editor or emacs to edit a document, you should save your document with the file extension ".tex" at the end.
You should compile the document with "pdflatex name.tex" where name is the name you gave your file. The result will be a number of files, one of which will be a pdf file containing your typeset document.
Installing and Using LaTex in OSX
Installing LaTex in Mac OSX is similar, the simplest method is to install MacTex from the website: http://tug.org/mactex/
I suggest using the included TexShop to edit your documents, which again should end in the ".tex" extension. You compile documents in this case by using the button in TexShop or pressing the hot-key-combination "cmd-t".
Installing and Using LaTex in Windows
I am not as familiar with LaTex in Windows. However here are some packages which I believe will get you to a working version of LaTex:
- MikTex: http://miktex.org contains the actual LaTex and Tex programs.
- Notepad++ is one of many editors: http://notepad-plus-plus.org
- One then has to setup Notepad++ to use MikTex, see this page http://physics.syr.edu/~salgado/software/latex/miktex_setup/
- With Notepad++ configured documents are then compiled by choosing "Run".
- There are other editors, particularly WinEdt http://www.winedt.com which works well, but is not free.
Lyx
In addition to the above you may want to check out Lyx. http://www.lyx.org Lyx is a program for using LaTex which provides more of a What You See Is What You Get (WSIWYG) functionality to it. LaTexers either hate it or love it it seems.
Places to get help
- The main thing is to google for your question, usually a solution presents itself quickly.
- CTAN http://www.ctan.org has many useful extensions to the LaTex package you have started with.
- http://jobs.siam.org/r/resumes/bank/search.cfm?site_id=686 is a resume data bank hosted by SIAM.