As you would expect from any Computer Algebra System worth its name, Mathematica is capable of doing all of the work commonly dealt with in a basic algebra course.
In this notebook we will investigate some of the usual tricks that are expected from students in basic algebra, and also push the limits back a little by taking advantage of the fact that we have a computer that can do much of our work for us.
Remember, as we said in the introduction to the first notebook, in order to tell Mathematica that you want it to actually evaluate what you have typed, hit the ENTER key over on the extreme right side of your keyboard on the numeric keypad. Again, don't confuse this with the RETURN key, which merely starts a new line of text.
You can now switch to the actual Mathematica practice notebook by
clicking on the button at left. It will take a while to start up! Don't forget to come back
here when you're done by using the Applications menu! (You can also use this
menu just to come back here to reread the instructions.) See you in a few
minutes.
Welcome back! Hopefully everything went well. You may now go to the Table of Contents for the Mathematica Basics Labs, or simply quit.