tutorials

Mathcad Tip

• • The Insert key flips the vertical bar to either side of the horizontal line.

  • Access a hidden menu in Mathcad 11 and 12 with Ctrl+Shift+W

  • The same mathematical operation via different operators can sometimes give different results. For example

The nth root operator gives a real answer, while the power operator sweeps an Argand diagram counterclockwise and gives the first result it hits

VisSim Tip

• • Set the properties of Signal Producer blocks by defining a variable in the main worksheet. The value of the variable can be defined using a slider or a push button, thus making it easier to vary during simulation

  • Distribute VisSim worksheets with the run-time only VisSim viewer. Get it here

Maple Tip

• • CTRL+J and CTRL+K are your friends! Rember these keyboard shortcuts! They insert new lines before and after your currerntly selected line

Excel Tip

• • Within the Excel environment, unary negation binds more tightly than exponentation. However, this is vice-versa in Mathcad, Maple, Matlab and almost anything else!

  • It's trivially easy to demontrates the effect of floating point error in Excel. Simply enter =(0.3-0.1-0.1-0.1) in a cell. You'll get a number that's in the order of 10E-17. Also try the previous operation without brackets, i.e. =0.3-0.1-0.1-0.1 and note the difference. Why is this?