Book excerpt: Mastering Mathematica®: Programming Methods and Applications presents the mathematical results and turn them into precise algorithmic procedures that can be executed by a computer. This book provides insight into more complex situations that can be investigated by hand. Organized into four parts, this book begins with an overview of the use of a pocket calculator. This text then looks in more detail at numerical calculations and solving equations, both algebraic and differential equations. Other parts consider the built-in graphics and show how to make pictures without programming. This book discusses as well the four styles of programming, namely, functional programming, imperative programming, rewrite programing, and object oriented programming. The reader is also introduced to differentiable mapping to show the analysis of critical points of functions and the developments in differential geometry that are required to study minimal surfaces. This book is a valuable resource for graduate students in mathematics, mathematics education, engineering, and the sciences.