In the autumn of 2010, the authors set up a Mathcad course for students with a background in (pharmaceutical) technology. The aim of this course was to help students find their way in Mathcad: perhaps the only programming language that allows one to communicate with non-programmers. Secondly, this course was intended to refresh people's mathematical skills.

To allow students to work on the course when and as they liked, the lecturers decided to try a 'do-it-yourself course' with lessons and exercises on the computer. They organized the course in such a way that when students worked on it for two hours per week, they could finish the course in twelve weeks.

Ten PhD students and two technicians from the department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmacy of the University of Groningen tested the course. The valuable comments from the participants was helpful to write this book. Initially we intended to present all the material as Mathcad files, but the participants of the course told us that working with paper in parallel with the computer helped them to get an overview. As the files had to be transferred to paper anyway, the authors have put them together in this book, since they felt that it may help other persons with a life-science background interested in working with Mathcad.

Contents

00 Introducing Mathcad • 01 Handling of Text • 02 Arithmetic • 03 Variables • 04 Editing of Equations • 05 Ranges and Tables • 06 Plotting of Functions • 07 Worksheet Layout • 08 Units in Mathcad • 09 Programming • 10 3-D Plotting • 11 Statistics • 12 Distributions • 13 Testing • 14 Data Analysis • 15 Symbolic Calculus • 16 Solve and Series • 17 Symbolic Keywords • 18 Vectors and Matrices • 19 Linear Equations • 20 Non-linear Equations • 21 Solving with Functions • 22 Differential Equations • 23 Partial Differential Equations • 24 Ending • Appendix 3D-Formatting • Index

Commentaar van Prof. F. De Somer, Universiteit van Gent, mei 2011:
Het boek “Communicate your calculations using Mathcad” is een zeer praktisch geschreven boek, waardoor beginnende gebruikers de software snel meester kunnen worden. Zelfs voor mij, een jarenlange gebruiker van Mathcad waren er verschillende tips terug te vinden. De voorbeelden en oefeningen zijn duidelijk en de bijbehorende Mathcad worksheets bijzonder behulpzaam.
Voor mij is dit boek zeker een aanrader voor een beginnend Mathcad gebruiker en toegevoegde waarde voor de “medium” gebruiker. Ik zal dit als dusdanig ook aangeven aan de studenten die Mathcad gebruiken.