# Help with Symbolic Programming
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842
**Category:** New to Julia
**Tags:** question, symbolics
**Created:** [December 20, 2023, 8:15am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842 "2023-12-20T08:15:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ContactPatch22](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ContactPatch22)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2023, 8:15am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842/1 "2023-12-20T08:15:52Z")
Hi all, I am new to Julia (coming from Python).
I need some help with defining equations and extracting Mass, Stiffness and Damping Matrices. Does anyone have some advice to generate these matrices using the following equation, for example:
Many thanks!
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### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2023, 8:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842/2 "2023-12-20T08:44:36Z")
Welcome to the community!
Some questions and remarks:
- I do not see any equation. This looks like a term, not like an equation.
- what is the definition of C\_{pi} and K\_{pi} and x and q and Z\_{si}? Are these variables scalars, vectors or matrices and if yes of which dimension?
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### Author:  [@ContactPatch22](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ContactPatch22)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2023, 9:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842/3 "2023-12-21T09:37:09Z")
Hi, and thank you!
That is correct, it is a term, the “right hand side” of the equation is the applied force. The term posted contains the description of a railway track and sub elements beneath it (such as sleepers ballasts and the sub-grade). It is in a 2 dimensional state at the moment, but I plan to extend to 3D soon.
Cpi and Kpi are constants that describe the rail pad stiffness and damping, whereas x is a float variable that describes location along the x-axis. q and Zsi are generalized coordinates and as such are in a single vector where the first K elements are q’s and next N elements are Zs.
Elements that have a coefficient that are a second derivative of the coordinate vector go to the mass matrix, elements that have a coefficient that are a first derivative of the coordinate vector go the damping matrix and elements that are a coefficient of the coordinate vector go to the stiffness matrix.
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### Author:  [@roflmaostc](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/roflmaostc)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2023, 10:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842/4 "2023-12-21T10:06:02Z")
You said you come from Python: Did you try to implement this in Python?
If you would post a code snippet, I guess much more people would be willing to help.
Otherwise your question is still very unclear and it is unlikely that people can help.
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### Author:  [@ContactPatch22](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ContactPatch22)
#### Post date: [December 29, 2023, 7:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/help-with-symbolic-programming/107842/5 "2023-12-29T07:38:09Z")
Hi again,
I did implement in Python and have done so again in Julia by using for loops - not to worry, it produces the same result as the Python script. Will update when I find a quicker method.