ABSTRACT
This chapter shows physicists how to embellish plots and visualize the results of their calculations using some of Mathematica's most advanced tools. It demonstrates how to use Mathematica to carry out calculations in vector differential calculus. The chapter explores some more of the many options for one-dimensional and two-dimensional plots. It focuses on the Mathematica functions that shows three dimensional surfaces can also be plotted in other ways, such as contour plots and density plots. The chapter also explores ways to visualize vector fields. The chapter discusses polar, cylindrical, and spherical coordinates. There are several dozen options for enhancing otherwise simple two dimensional plots. A different way of grouping plots might be to show features of the same information but on different scales, for example linear versus logarithmic. Three dimensional renderings of functions of two variables are striking and useful, but frequently physicists can display more information more effectively using contour plots or density plots.
