Stimulating the Learning Process in Mathematics and Numerics by Use of Computer Programs Like Mathematica

The development of fast, powerful laptop computers during the last twenty years has greatly facilitated the solving of complex problems in a variety of scientific research areas. By using such devices, teachers and educators are able to utilize their research results in their day-to-day work among students on campus. In my situation, teaching engineering students mathematics and physics at Oslo and Akershus University College, I have benefited greatly from using Mathematica, an excellent programmng tool developed by Steven Wolfram and his colleagues at Wolfram Research, Champaign, Illinois. We are now on the 10 iteration since the program’s release in 1988. My experience started with version two in 1990, and since then I have used the program extensively in lecturing and research. In this paper I outline my experiences with this programming tool, using examples from teaching fluid mechanics, and I comment on the feedback from students participating in the data lab. In addition to short courses introducing the program, the students have used it in first level calculus courses, working on integration, power series, Fourier series, and numerical analysis. I have also tried to use programming examples to motivate students in courses in hydrodynamics and indoor climate problems in the environmental engineering program. Illustrative animations are easy to perform to model dynamic systems. This year I am distributing programming examples of numerical solutions of PDE’s in a master’s course in fluid mechanics.