Resources for Students

Center for Assistance with Statistics and Mathematics

Here is a list of some helpful resources and information for students currently enrolled in math courses or majoring in mathematics or another STEM field.

Wolfram Alpha Pro

Wolfram Alpha Pro is your graphing calculator plus so much more!  It's a self described "computational knowledge engine" which can do anything from finding the roots to that pesky quadratic equation to solving differential equations, or even bring up information about general math topics or mathematicians. All UW students have access to a Wolfram Alpha Pro account when using their .uwyo email address. The University of Wyoming currently has a site license with Wolfram which gives free access to Wolfram Alpha Pro and Mathematica for all students. Be sure to use your .uwyo email address when creating an account and create a free Wolfram Alpha Pro account now!

Mathematica

Mathematica is a powerful piece of software. It is the same language that Wolfram Alpha is based on. Mathematica costs thousands of dollars if you were to purchase a copy on your own and student licenses normally are on a per semester fee basis. However, UW students have access to free copies that they can download onto their personal computers (no remote lab business!). We recommend any one studying in a STEM field to download and install it. It's one of the best tools for symbolic manipulation. Instructions for obtaining Mathematica can be found here.

LaTeX

LaTeX (pronounced lay-tek) is a document preparation system and document markup language that is widely used in academia. Ever wonder how professors make those lovely exams, quizzes, worksheets, and homework assignments for you? It's LaTeX! It’s pretty easy to learn and is highly recommended for any student going into mathematics or another STEM field. It is widely used for the communication and publication of scientific documents in many fields, including mathematics, physics, computer science, statistics, economics, and political science. It also has a prominent role in the preparation and publication of books and articles that contain complex multilingual materials, such as Sanskrit and Arabic, including critical editions. LaTeX is not the name of a particular editing program, but refers to the encoding or tagging conventions that are used in LaTeX documents.

Other Helpful Resources

• Paul's Online Math Notes : a great resource for Calculus 1-3 and differential equations notes. Tons of practice problems and detailed explanations
• Kahn Academy: free online learning resources for a variety of subjects including mathematics
• MIT OpenCourseware: access to free course materials for courses taught at MIT
• LinearAlgebra Toolkit: a free online linear algebra calculator for Gaussian elimination, determining linear independence, etc.
• Desmos: a free easy to use online graphing utility
• MathisPower4u: a library of mini-video lessons on everything from geometry to differential equations.