Vectors and Graphing Help with Mathcad

[egiarta1671]

So I have been taking a Calculus III course at the local community college and AP Physics at school and have noticed the incredible power of the dot product, cross product, 3D graphing, gradient, partial derivatives, integrals, and the works, especially for a prgogramm like the FIRST Robotics Competition. I know that PTC's Mathcad is a powerful mathemathical computation program so I was wondering how to do some fairly basic but highly useful operations like dot product, cross product, 3D graphing, gradient, table of values, and partial derivatives. Is anyone that knows how willing to help? It would be greatly appreciated!

--

Evan Giarta

Buchanan Bird Brains FRC Team 1671

Chief Executive Officer, 2011 - 2012

Director of CAD and Design, 2010 - 2011

[VladimirN · Accepted solution]

On a site "PTC Learning Exchange" it is possible to find video examples for versions Mathcad 15 and Mathcad Prime: http://learningexchange.ptc.com/tutorials/by_product/product_id:4

I recommend to you to look at this training on Mathcad Prime: "Mathcad Tutorials". I hope it will be useful.

Also, at PTC's site is available following section - "Mathematical Engineering Resources", where you can find many documents in the Mathcad formats and in PDF: http://www.ptc.com/appserver/search/mathcad.jsp

[Fred_Kohlhepp]

It's fairly obvious that you've not used Mathcad. Dot and cross product are direct built-in operations in mathcad as are derivatives (so gradient, divergence and curl are simply achieved.Up to version 15 Mathcad had useable (not great) capabilities in 3D graphing; that capability is missing in Prime 1, still being developed in Prime 2.

tables of values as well as derivatives are simply achieved.

Among advantages you haven't asked about are unit conversion and balancing. Standard 3D vector math is supported.

In addition to Vladimir's pointers towards education, PTC will grant a "trial license," allowing you to try out Mathcad for 30 days. For your purposes, I suggest version 15. While PTC is hyping Prime and the integration of Prime with its' other products, version 15 remains the fully functional Mathcad package.

[VladimirN]

Fred Kohlhepp wrote:

...In addition to Vladimir's pointers towards education, PTC will grant a "trial license," allowing you to try out Mathcad for 30 days. For your purposes, I suggest version 15. While PTC is hyping Prime and the integration of Prime with its' other products, version 15 remains the fully functional Mathcad package.

Just note that:

Mathcad 15.0 30-day free trial download can be found here: http://www.ptc.com/products/mathcad/mathcad-15-0/free-trial.htm

and Mathcad Prime 1.0 free 30-day trial here: http://www.ptc.com/products/mathcad/mathcad-prime-1-0/free-trial-b.htm

[RichardJ]

To add to what the other have said, Mathcad 15 has some very good built-in tutorials. Look under the help menu. This is a good place not only to learn how to do the things you have asked about, but also just to see examples of what can be done. There are also tutorials in Mathcad Prime, but they are not as comprehensive as those in Mathcad 15.

[VladimirN]

Richard Jackson wrote:

To add to what the other have said, Mathcad 15 has some very good built-in tutorials. Look under the help menu. This is a good place not only to learn how to do the things you have asked about, but also just to see examples of what can be done. There are also tutorials in Mathcad Prime, but they are not as comprehensive as those in Mathcad 15.

Agree with this.

[egiarta1671]

Alright everyone, thanks for all your help. I look forward to trying all this stuff out!

[VladimirN]

You're welcome.