Recent advances in hardware performance and software technology have made possible a wholly different approach to computational mathematics. Symbolic computation systems have revolutionized the field, building upon established and recent mathematical theory to open new possibilities in virtually every industry. Formerly dubbed Scratchpad, AXIOM is a powerful new symbolic and numerical system developed at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. AXIOM's scope, structure, and organization make it outstanding among computer algebra systems. AXIOM: The Scientific Computation System is a companion to the AXIOM system. The text is written in a straightforward style and begins with a spirited foreword by David and Gregory Chudnovsky. The book gives the reader a technical introduction to AXIOM, interacts with the system's tutorial, accesses algorithms newly developed by the symbolic computation community, and presents advanced programming and problem solving techniques. Eighty illustrations and eight pages of color inserts accompany text detailing methods used in the 2D and 3D interactive graphics system, and over 2500 example input lines help the reader solve formerly intractable problems.