Mathematica ver. 6 by Wolfram Research Inc.

In case you are wondering, this is not a book. Mathematica is the name of a computer software developed by Wolfram Research. This software is huge and contains within it all the mathematics that anyone will ever need.

I came across this software years back when Windows was still in version 2 or 3 when I chanced upon the Mathematica Book in MPH Stamford. This Book was meant to be the "bible", user guide and reference manual for the software. Mathematica was ver 1 then but I was amazed that you can use it to solve complex problems in maths and then plot the output in colour in both 2D and 3D. So out plonk my dole (it ain't cheap, but I was young) and I have upgraded all the way to ver 6 now.

Of course you can use it as a high end calculator - you enter the equation and it solves it for you but that's only the tip of the ice berg. You see you are supposed to use it to write programmes to solve extremely complex mathematical, physical problems and Wolfram has a whole web site of such programmes and functions developed by users.

Having said that, Mathematica does have a fairly steep learning curve before one is conversant enough to use it to solve real world problems. Believe me I am still trying. But I have seen maths books written entirely in Mathematica. Now that's something. I have dabbled with MathCad, MathLab etc but I think Mathematica is by far the "chimmest" (I mean deep).

One thing though, I never did manage to get Mathematica to explain and show me how come 1 + 1 is equal to 2 though. I am also wondering if any schools or universities here use it to teach mathematics or physical sciences.