ABSTRACT
This chapter shows physicists how to make use of the capabilities of getting numerical solutions to ordinary algebraic equations and extracting values from vast databases of commonly used numerical values. The chapter shows how to make use of these capabilities. The It also shows that non-integer, and especially irrational, numbers present a special problem with precision. Mathematica makes it possible to carry out numerical calculations with numbers attached to units. Mathematica "knows" the values of all the commonly used physical parameters physicists are likely to need. Some Mathematica functions actually return quantities with units, for example numbers retrieved from data bases. Mathematica makes it possible for physicists to connect to external databases in any number of ways. Mathematica gives physicists access to a large number of physical and chemical databases.
