Highest scored questions
97,743 questions
648
votes
7
answers
196k
views
xkcd-style plots
I received an email to which I wanted to respond with a xkcd-style graph, but I couldn't manage it. Everything I drew looked perfect, and I don't have enough command over ...
- 6,968
608
votes
19
answers
161k
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Where can I find examples of good Mathematica programming practice?
I consider myself a pretty good Mathematica programmer, but I'm always looking out for ways to either improve my way of doing things in Mathematica, or to see if there's something nifty that I haven't ...
559
votes
37
answers
139k
views
What are the most common pitfalls awaiting new users?
As you may already know, Mathematica is a wonderful piece of software.
However, it has a few characteristics that tend to confuse new (and sometimes not-so-new) users. That can be clearly seen from ...
359
votes
6
answers
239k
views
How do I draw a pair of buttocks?
I'm trying to develop a function which 3D plot would have a buttocks like shape.
Several days of searching the web and a dozen my of own attempts to solve the issue have brought nothing but two ...
- 3,063
262
votes
9
answers
21k
views
What are the use cases for different scoping constructs?
Mathematica includes three functions that I know of which can be used to effectively (if not actually) define a variable and give it a value within a local scope: ...
- 5,001
224
votes
2
answers
15k
views
What is the distinction between DownValues, UpValues, SubValues, and OwnValues?
When reading through the documentation, you often encounter the phrases DownValues, UpValues, ...
- 34.3k
216
votes
26
answers
19k
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What are some useful, undocumented Mathematica functions?
There have already been some questions about some undocumented functionality in Mathematica. Such as (please add to these lists!)
How can one find undocumented options or option values in Mathematica?...
210
votes
2
answers
42k
views
Help find a bright object on Mars!
In today's news, scientists found a bright object on one of Curiosity's photos (it's near the bottom of the picture below). It's a bit tricky to find - I actually spent quite some time staring at the ...
- 5,326
208
votes
15
answers
77k
views
Elegant operations on matrix rows and columns
Question
The Mathematica tutorial has a section 'Basic Matrix Operations', describing operations like transpose, inverse and determinant. These operations all work on entire matrices. I am missing a ...
- 7,917
207
votes
3
answers
57k
views
Alternatives to procedural loops and iterating over lists in Mathematica
While there are some cases where a For loop might be reasonable, it's a general mantra – one I subscribe to myself – that "if you are using a ...
- 275k
203
votes
2
answers
64k
views
QR Code in shopping cart handle
This week, the market people from my work wanted to put QR codes in shopping cart handles, but when they tested it, the QR code did not work. I noted that the cylindrical curvature (even small) ...
- 26.5k
187
votes
6
answers
25k
views
How to compile effectively?
What are the best practices of compiling functions? I understand that this is a vague question, but let me list some aspects that might trigger useful answers. Some of these have already been answered ...
- 47.2k
186
votes
5
answers
20k
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Performance tuning in Mathematica?
What performance tuning tricks do you use to make a Mathematica application faster? MATLAB has an amazing profiler, but from what I can tell, Mathematica has no similar functionality.
- 2,663
185
votes
8
answers
23k
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List of compilable functions
Is there somewhere a list on the functions that Compile can compile, or the cases in which a particular function can be compiled that I haven't found?
I'd be glad ...
- 43.1k
173
votes
1
answer
31k
views
Mathematica Minecraft
Some time ago I asked myself: with all these great graphics and interactive capabilities of Mathematica, what kinds of 3D games can be implemented in it? And the answer which came to mind is ...
- 12.8k