AbstractModern software's allow computers to perform symbolic calculations in addition to simple numerical computations for which they were originally designed. This fact opens new possibilities in numerical simulation. In this paper a finite element implementation using the commercial software Wolfram Mathematica is used to solve a plane stress elasticity problem. The code adaptability from the provided examples to more challenging problems can easily be performed using the present code. Numerical examples with post‐processing illustrates the new tool and its flexibility. It has been proven in this study the feasibility of Wolfram Mathematica in learning and programming finite element methods for the solution of two‐dimensional problems in elasticity.