This document presents a short tutorial for Mathcad. The instructions were originally written for use with Mathcad 13.
We will start with basic concepts related to the use of the software and then proceed to more advanced topics.
Order of Operations:
Mathcad processes instructions from left to right and top to bottom.
1) operation 1
2) operation 2
3) operation 3
4) operation 4
5) operation 5
6) operation 6
Text and Math:
The characters you type are placed wherever the cursor (the red plus
Note that the Right-Click/"Properties" options are also available for Math regions.
Note that you can easily tell the difference between a text and math region since they use different fonts.
Units and Pre-defined Variables:
Mathcad allows you to associate units with any number that you enter.
Note the green squiggley line underneath the "m".
Note that if you Left-Click on the green line now, the text "This expression redefines a previously defined variable."
Mathcad has some predefined variables that you may need, the most common of which is the gravitational constant "g".
Mathcad uses SI units for its internal calculations, so the value for "g" is as shown on the left.
Note that all of the units that are defined within Mathcad are available using the "Insert Unit" icon (it looks like a little measuring cup) at the top of the Mathcad window.
Temperature:
correct:
incorrect:
impossible!
Caution:
when using English units, be careful of pound-force (a unit of force) and pound-mass (a unit
Equal Signs:
When you use colon (:) it places the symbol := on the worksheet.
Calculations are also done with the colon operator.
Without Space bar
With Space bar
If the value of "A" has been defined, typing "A=" will report the assigned value for A in the default units, i.e. it will evaluate "A".
The third type of equal sign is obtained from the Boolean toolbar.
Guess a value for x:
Type the word "Given" (Do Not type a space after Given or you will get a "text" Given and not a "math" given)
Type in the equation using the Ctrl= type of equal sign
Use a solve block function to solve the equation based on your initial guess.
Note that ans = 3 if we use an initial guess of x:=5 above, and ans=1 if we use an initial guess of x:=0.5 above.
Subscripts:
To add a subscript to a variable name, use the "period" key (.).
To add subscripts to variables within a text region, use the Formatting Toolbar.
A third type of subscript is associated with vectors and matrices.
Mathcad starts the Matrix and Vector numbering with the number ZERO (0).
Vectors and Matrices:
You can create and manipulate vectors and matrices using the Vector and Matrix Toolbar.
The second option on the top row in the Vector and Matrix Toolbar allows you to access individual elements of a vector or matrix.
The third option on the top row is the "Inverse" which gives the inverse of a matrix (if it exists).
The third option on the second row of the Vector and Matrix Toolbar takes the "Transpose" of a vector or matrix.
Note that the "T" is red, indicating an error.
Other useful options
Range Variable
Dot Product
Cross Product
Determinant
This section under construction!
Graphing Results:
Graph Toolbar
This section under construction!
Calculus Toolbar:
This section under construction!
Symbolics:
This section is under construction!
Output Data to a File:
Although Mathcad is capable of creating graphs that are usable for visualization purposes, there may come a time when you wish to use another program to create more complex or "prettier" graphs.
To export data once from a matrix:
1.
2.
Augmenting a Matrix:
augment() function