Octave is an open-source interactive software system for numerical computations and
graphics. It is particularly designed for matrix computations: solving simultaneous equations,
computing eigenvectors and eigenvalues and so on. In many real-world engineering
problems the data can be expressed as matrices and vectors, and boil down to these forms
of solution. In addition, Octave can display data in a variety of different ways, and it
also has its own programming language which allows the system to be extended. It can
be thought of as a very powerful, programmable, graphical calculator. Octave makes
it easy to solve a wide range of numerical problems, allowing you to spend more time
experimenting and thinking about the wider problem.