Comparing computational speed of MATLAB and Mathematica across a set of benchmark number crunching problems

Abstract. MATLAB and \(\textit{Mathematica}\) are the most widely used mathematical programming tools, each with its associated stereotypical advantages over the other. In order to test these stereotypes and determine where these advantages truly lie, a set of low-level benchmarking tests, covering a wide range of numerical and symbolic problems, were constructed and timed in each language. It was determined that \(\textit{Mathematica}\) still enjoys an enormous advantage in the solution of symbolic problems, but MATLAB is better able to import and solve problems which involve large amounts of numerical data.