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Projects

Getting Started With

Mathematica
Getting started with Mathematica and the Wolfram
language on Raspberry Pi

Step 1 What you will make

In this resource you will be introduced to Mathematica and the Wolfram language, which are available for free on the
Raspberry Pi.

Mathematica is a computational programming tool used in science, maths, computing and engineering. It was rst
released in 1988. It is proprietary software that you can use for free on the Raspberry Pi and comes bundled for free
with Raspbian. Mathematica is generally used for coding projects at university level and above.

What you will learn

By following the Getting Started with Mathematica worksheet, you will learn:

How to launch the Mathematica notebook and run commands

How to use variables
How to use symbolic values for irrational numbers like Pi
How to use lists, ranges, tables and loops
How to use and and search for built-in functions
How to save a Wolfram script and run it from the command line
How to perform list operations
How to use Matrices
How to plot in 3D
How to access GPIO pins and the camera module

This resource covers elements from the following strands of the Raspberry Pi Digital Making Curriculum (https://w
ww.raspberrypi.org/curriculum/):

Use basic programming constructs to create simple programs (https://www.raspberrypi.org/curriculum/pr

ogramming/creator)

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Step 2 What you will need

A Raspberry Pi computer

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Step 3 Getting started with Mathematica

Mathematica is a computational programming tool used in science, maths, computing and engineering, rst released
in 1988. It is proprietary software that you can use for free on the Raspberry Pi and has been bundled with Raspbian
and NOOBS since late 2013.

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Step 4 Starting Mathematica

Double-click the Mathematica icon on the Desktop or open it from the applications menu to start. You’ll see a splash
screen with the red Mathematica logo while the program loads:

Once loaded, you’ll see two windows. These are the Wolfram information dialogue:

and the Mathematica notebook:

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The Wolfram information dialogue shows web links to:

Wolfram Language Documentation Center (http://reference.wolfram.com/language/index.html)

Wolfram + Raspberry Pi Website (http://www.wolfram.com/raspberry-pi)
Wolfram Community (http://community.wolfram.com/content?curTag=raspberry%20pi)

These links will open in the web browser on the Raspberry Pi, provided you’re connected to the internet.

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Step 5 Programming in Mathematica

Click inside the notebook window and enter:

Print["Hello world"]

Press Shift + Enter; it will run the command and print “Hello world” to the screen like so:

You can perform mathematical calculations, for example:

In[2]:= 2 + 2

Out[2]= 4

In[3]:= 16254 / 32

Out[3]= 8127 / 16

In[4]:= 1024 * 32

Out[4]= 32768

Notebook editing

You can revisit a previously entered command by clicking it or moving the edit cursor with the keyboard. You can then
delete, edit, or add something and press Shift + Enter to execute the new command in its place.

You can save a notebook and come back to it later, send it to a friend, post it online, or even hand it in as your
homework! Just go to File > Save As in the notebook window.

When you open up a saved notebook, all the previous entries will be shown, including all the inputs and outputs. You
can execute each cell again with Shift + Enter, or all at once by selecting Evaluation > Evaluate Notebook
from the menu.

Variables

You can store the results of calculations in variables:

radius = 5;
diameter = 2 * radius;
circumference = 2 * Pi * radius;
area = Pi * radius^2;

Note the semicolon at the end of each line suppresses the output being printed.

Symbolic values

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Note the use of the built-in symbol Pi which contains a symbolic value of Pi. This means that if you pass it into an
equation the reference to the true value of Pi is preserved, not converted to decimal and rounded:

In[19]:= Pi

Out[19]: π

In[20]:= tau = 2 * Pi

Out[20]: 2 π

To get the decimal representation of a symbolic value, use the N function:

In[5]:= N[Pi]

Out[5]: 3.14159

The default number of signi cant gures given is 6, but more can be given by specifying the number in the second
argument:

In[6]:= N[Pi, 10]

Out[6]: 3.141592654

Note this is the number of gures, not decimal places; so the 3 is included in the count, leaving 9 decimal places.

Lists

You can store collections of data in a list:

nums = {1, 2, 3, 5, 8}
people = {"Alice", "Bob", "Charlotte", "David"}

Range

The Range function can be used to produce a list of numbers:

Range[5] (*The numbers 1 to 5*)

Range[2, 5] (*The numbers 2 to 5*)
Range[2, 5, 2] (*The numbers 2 to 5, in steps of 2*)

Table

The Table function is a method of generating the values of a list with a function:

Table[i ^ 2, {i, 10}] (*Squares of the numbers 1 to 10*)

Table[i ^ 2, {i, 5, 10}] (*Squares of the numbers 5 to 10*)
Table[i ^ 2, {i, nums}] (*Squares of the items in the list nums*)

Looping

You can run a loop a number of times, or over the items in a list, with Do:

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Do[Print["Hello"], {10}] (*Print "Hello" 10 times*)

Do[Print[i], {i, 5}] (*Print the numbers 1 to 5*)
Do[Print[i], {i, 3, 5}] (*Print the numbers 3 to 5*)
Do[Print[i], {i, 1, 5, 2}] (*Print the numbers 1 to 5, in steps of 2*)
Do[Print[i ^ 2], {i, nums}] (*Print the square of each item in the list nums*)

Function help

You can get usage help for a function by preceding the function name with a question mark ( ?) and pressing Shift +
Enter:

Function search

You can also search for functions by entering part of the function name to nd matches. Just start with a ( ?) and add
an asterisk (*) on the end as a wildcard:

In[15]:= ?Device*

You can use multiple wildcards:

In[16]:= ?*Close*

Comments

As seen in earlier examples, you can leave comments (notes that are ignored in the program) in scripts by using
brackets (( & )) and asterisks (*):

Print["Hello"] (*Print "Hello" to the screen*)

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Step 6 Wolfram command line access

You can also access the Wolfram language from the command line by entering wolfram in the terminal, or double-
clicking the Wolfram Desktop icon. This will give a text-only (non-graphical) programming environment with the In[x]
/ Out[x] style interface, but without interactive notebook functionality. The Mathematica functions will still work as
expected:

You’ll nd the command line interface faster to use due to the lack of graphical processing required to run the
notebook, however it lacks the graphical interface’s interactivity and pretty printing.

To exit, press Ctrl + D.

Running scripts with Wolfram

You can write a program, save it as a normal le (usually with a .m or .wl le extension), and execute the script from
the command line by adding the -script ag.

To run test.m:

wolfram -script test.m

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Step 7 List operations

You can apply an operation or function to all items in a list:

In[21]:= 2 * {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Out[21]: {2, 4, 6, 8, 10}

In[22]:= {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} ^ 2

Out[22]: {1, 4, 9, 16, 25}

In[23]:= Sqrt[{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}]

Out[23]: {1, Sqrt[2], Sqrt[3], 2, Sqrt[5]}

Note that in the last example the square roots of 1 and 4 were given exactly, as they yield integer value; however the
square roots of 2, 3 and 5, which are irrational, are given symbolically.

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Step 8 Matrices

One of the most useful additional components of a mathematical programming language is the ability to do matrix (ht
tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_(mathematics)) operations. Of course, Mathematica has these available.

To create a matrix rst enter the values as a list of lists, making sure the dimensions are rectangular, i.e. n x m where n
and m are integers:

m = {{1, 2}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}};

You can view this list as a matrix by typing:

m // MatrixForm

You can perform matrix operations such as dot product (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_product):

m = {{1, 2}, {3, 4}, {5, 6}};

m2 = {{10, 20, 30}, {40, 50, 60}};
m . m2 // MatrixForm

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Step 9 Plotting

You can plot interesting things using Mathematica:

For example, plot an echidnahedron (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Echidnahedron.html) with the following

command:

Graphics3D[{Opacity[.8], Glow[RGBColor[1,0,0]], EdgeForm[White], Lighting -> None, PolyhedronData["Echidnahedron",

"Faces"]}]

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Step 10 GPIO

You can access the GPIO pins from Mathematica using the DeviceWrite and DeviceRead functions.

To access the GPIO pins you’ll need to be running as root. To do this, run sudo wolfram from the terminal (this will
run the command line wolfram environment), or sudo mathematica & to run the Mathematica notebook as root.

The following command turns on GPIO pin 14 (using BCM pin numbering):

DeviceWrite["GPIO", 14 -> 1]

The following command turns pin 14 o :

DeviceWrite["GPIO", 14 -> 0]

You can also read the status of a GPIO input device (to check if a button is pressed, for example) with DeviceRead, in
a similar way:

button = DeviceRead["GPIO", 14]

The variable button should now contain 0 for o or 1 for on.

Read more about GPIO in general on the GPIO usage page (https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/g
pio-plus-and-raspi2/README.md).

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Step 11 Camera

You can take pictures with the camera using the DeviceRead function. First, attach your camera as directed in the
camera setup guide (http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/camera-module-setup/).

To take a still picture with the camera, type the following command:

img = DeviceRead["RaspiCam"]

Then to save the image as a le, use Export and supply the save path and the variable containing the image:

Export["/home/pi/img.jpg", img]

Published by Raspberry Pi Foundation (https://www.raspberrypi.org) under a Creative Commons license (ht

tps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
View project & license on GitHub (https://github.com/RaspberryPiLearning/getting-started-with-mathem
atica)

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