matematik programmer

http://directory.google.com/Top/Science/Math/Software/

MathCAD og Matlab er gode, men de koster desværre begge temmelig meget.
www.mathsoft.com

det ville være rart med en beskrivelse af hvad de forskellige programmer kan, efter som jeg jo skal bruge penge på dem.

Jeg er ikke helt inde i Matlab, men ved at det kan rigtig meget - blandt andet kan det, via plugins, simulere et analogt eller digitalt system, som f.eks. et FIR filter eller lignende - du kan f.eks. komme ét signal ind, og se hvad der kommer ud på den anden side. Matlab er dog ret svært at lære.

MathCAD er til gengæld noget nemmere at lære, efter min mening. MathCAD kan også rigtig meget, herunder at løse ligninger, integrere, evaluere og forsimple udtryk symbolsk osv. Herunder er der en kort liste over hvad MathCAD kan:
Important new math functionality:

New partial differential equation solve blocks for parabolic (heat) and hyperbolic (wave) equations in one dimension
New complex arguments and fractional order for Bessel functions, and new Hankel functions
Improved fitting routines for general and exponential fitting
improved Trace Error tracks the sources of errors in complicated worksheets
New support for complex arguments to floor, ceil, round, and trunc
New sinc function
Here is an overview of Mathcad's computational capabilities:

Numeric operators perform summations, products, derivatives, integrals and Boolean operations.
Numeric functions apply trigonometric, exponential, hyperbolic and other functions and transforms.
Symbolics simplify, differentiate, integrate, and transform expressions algebraically. Mathcad's patented live symbolics technology automatically recalculates algebraic solutions.
Vectors and Matrices manipulate arrays and perform various linear algebra operations, such as finding eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and looking up values in arrays.
Statistics and Data Analysis generate random numbers or histograms, fit data to built-in and general functions, interpolate data, and build probability distribution models.
Differential Equation Solvers support ordinary differential equations, systems of differential equations, and boundary value problems both at the command line and in solve blocks that use natural notation to specify the DiffEQs and constraints.
Variables and Units handle real, imaginary, and complex numbers with or without associated units.
High-performance calculation engine provides speed and sophisticated memory management to help you find solutions faster.

... det kommer jo selvfølgelig også an på, hvad du skal bruge det til ?