The mathematician and juggler Ronald L. Graham has likened the mastery of computer programming to the mastery of juggling. The problem with juggling is that the balls go exactly where you throw them. And the problem with computers is that they do exactly what you tell them.

This is a book about Mathematica, a software system described as “the world's most powerful global computing environment.” As software programs go, Mathematica is big–really big. We said that back in 1999 in the preface to the first edition of this book. And it's gotten a good deal bigger since then. There are more than 900 new documented symbols in version 6 of Mathematica. It's been said that there are more new commands in version 6 than there were commands in version 1. It's gotten so big that the documentation is no longer produced in printed form. Our trees and our backs are grateful. Yes, Mathematica will do exactly what you ask it to do, and it has the potential to amaze and delight–but you have to know how to ask, and that can be a formidable task.

That's where this book comes in. It is intended as a supplementary text for high school and college students. As such, it introduces commands and procedures in an order that roughly coincides with the usual mathematics curriculum. The idea is to provide a coherent introduction to Mathematica that does not get ahead of itself mathematically.