Guide to Scientific Computing

by Peter R. Turner

Guide to Scientific Computing provides an introduction to the many problems of scientific computing, as well as the wide variety of methods used for their solution. It is ideal for anyone who needs an understanding of numerical mathematics or scientific computing - whether in mathematics, the sciences, engineering, or economics.

This book provides an appreciation of the need for numerical methods for solving different types of problems, and discusses basic approaches. For each of the problems mathematical justification and examples provide both practical evidence and motivations for the reader to follow. Practical justification of the methods is presented through computer examples and exercises. The major effort of programming is removed from the reader, as are the harder parts of analysis, so that the focus is clearly on the basics. Since some algebraic manipulation is unavoidable, it is carefully explained when necessary, especially in the early stages.

Guide to Scientific Computing includes an introduction to MATLAB, but the code used is not intended to exemplify sophisticated or robust pieces of software; it is purely illustrative of the methods under discussion. The book has an appendix devoted to the basics of the MATLAB package, its language and programming. The book provides an introduction to this subject which is not, in its combined demands of computing, motivation, manipulation, and analysis, paced such that only the most able can understand.

312 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2000