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MathCad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mathcad | |
 Mathcad v. 3.1 (1992 era) |
|
| Developer: | Mathsoft |
|---|---|
| Latest release: | 14.0 / February 12, 2007 |
| OS: | Windows |
| Use: | Computer algebra system |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Website: | MathCad |
Mathcad (originally written MathCAD) is desktop software for performing and documenting engineering and scientific calculations. First introduced in 1986 on DOS, it was the first to introduce live editing of typeset mathematical notation, combined with its automatic computation. It was also the first to automatically compute and check consistency of engineering units such as the International system of units. Both are important contributions to software technology. Mathcad today includes some of the capabilities of a computer algebra system somewhat similar to Mathematica or Maple. Mathcad nonetheless remains oriented towards ease of use and numerical engineering applications. Mathcad was conceived and originally written by Allen Razdow (of MIT), co-founder of Mathsoft which is now part of Parametric Technology Corporation.
Mathcad paved the way for a variety of desktop mathematical tools. Noted software metrician Capers Jones' study of 500 programming languages and programmable tools in the 1990s found Mathcad and Microsoft Excel to be number one and two in productivity (function-points per line of code).
It is oriented around a worksheet, in which equations and expressions are displayed graphically, as opposed to plain text.
Among the capabilities of MathCad are:
- Solving differential equations, with several possible numerical methods
- Graphing functions in two or three dimensions
- The use of the Greek alphabet (upper and lower case) in both text and equations
- Symbolic calculations
- Vector and matrix operations
- Symbolically solving systems of equations
- Curve fitting
- Implementing subprograms
- Finding roots of polynomials and functions
- Statistical functions and probability distributions
- Finding eigenvalues and eigenvectors
- Calculations in which units are bound to quantities
Although this program is mostly oriented to the non-programming users, it is also used in more complex projects to visualise results of the mathematical modelling using distributed computing and traditional programming languages. It is often used in large engineering projects where traceability and standards compliance are of importance.