What math program (Mathematica, Maple, or Mathcad) is best?

I am a junior undergrad math and physics major. I know some minimal C programming and I am looking to buy and learn one of the following math programs: Mathematica, Maple, or Mathcad. I will be doing a lot of partial differential equations this summer because i am doing an independent study of the subject. I will also be taking mathematical physics my senior year. Does anyone have any suggestions, personal reviews, or input on these three programs?

What math program (Mathematica, Maple, or Mathcad) is best?
I think mathematica is the best for me. But this question is a question of opinion more than a question of fact. I like mathematica because I like the way it is. Some of my friends use maple for their Ph.D. physics classes, modern optics, namely. I used mathematica for a lot of things and it works for me. My friends are used to maple and they like maple more than mathematica.





If I were you, I would get demo versions of these programs and try each of them out. See which one you like the most and buy it.
Reply:From talking to others, it seems that the best one is whichever one you are used to. I used Mathematica. I don't know much about the others, but I can tell you Mathematica is built on C, and the programming language you can use to do calculations is very similar to C. For that reason it may be a good option.





I was a Physics and Computer Science student, myself.