Tutorial 2K: Keystrokes

R. Dover, IMSA

Note: This notebook is optional. It may be done at any point after Tutorial 2. Or you may skip it entirely if you wish. Instructions in this notebook offer yet another way to enter mathematical notation and symbols. You are still welcome to use the palettes or simply enter expressions using "longhand." Many people use a combination of approaches. For some, it will be easier to continue with the other tutorials before adding another layer of choices at this point.

Special Letters

First, find the escape key, Esc, on the keyboard. This will become very familiar. Mathematica® denotes this by  when showing keystrokes for symbols. For example, in order to create the symbol

, the keystrokes are Esc p Esc. This will also be shown as  p  as you type. Try it.

For



(that is the Euler



), the coding is  ee . Similarly, for

=

-1

, use  ii . Now evaluate

2π



. (Use the palette or simply ^ with parentheses to obtain the exponent for now.)

For Greek letters, the approach is generally just as we used for

. For

, type  a . The first letter will work for many letters. For

, use  th . Or  q  also works. (Unfortunately,

is already taken by

.) In a new cell, type

Sin[α+β//TrigExpand

. Then try that for a couple of other variables with other trig functions. (Note that "//command " works with many commands. It can be used as an afterthought, even if it is not. In particular, //N is really handy!)

To create the

∞

symbol, type  inf . An arrow, used for options when plotting and for limits, may be created by "->", a dash and a "greater than" symbol. Cleverly, it will turn into an arrow. Type the following:

Limit[(1+1/n)^n,n->∞]

Now try a couple of your own expressions.

Notation

For this section, find the control key, Ctrl. Many notational forms use it. To obtain

125

, enter the following in a new cell: 3 Ctrl+^ 125. (Hold the control key as you type ^.) Then use either the right cursor or Ctrl+Space to move out of the exponent. Note that you may also enter 3 Ctrl+6 125, since the 6 and the ^ are on the same key. This is actually a bit simpler, so it is normally done this way.

For a fraction, the approach is similar. To write

, enter 1 Ctrl+/ 2. Again, use the right cursor or Ctrl+Space to move out of the denominator. In other words, use Ctrl with the symbol on the key you would normally use to type "longhand." Add a couple of fractions together. Then find a numerical approximation.

Creating a fraction with something a bit more complicated in the numerator requires a slightly different approach. For example, to obtain

x+3

, type x+3, select this entire expression, and then type Ctrl+/ and continue with the denominator. Try this.

A square root is obtained by using Ctrl+2. Try it.

Harder?

Execute the following:

Sum[1/k^2,{k,1,Infinity}]

Instead, begin a new cell and type the following:  sumt . Then you can fill in the rest of the info.

At this point, these symbols do not come quickly, but they will become faster with practice. There are lots of different abbreviations for lots of different symbols. If there is a particular one you wish to learn, you can hover over the symbol in the palette to learn the shortcut. In reality, many experienced Mathematica users switch forms freely, depending upon the expression. It may also depend on their mood at the moment.

Cite this as: Ruth Dover, "Introduction to Mathematica for High School Math (for Students and Teachers) #2k" from the Notebook Archive (2021), https://notebookarchive.org/2021-09-6h1uveu