Page 10 - Applied Numerical Methods Using MATLAB

PREFACE

This book introduces applied numerical methods for engineering and science
students in sophomore to senior levels; it targets the students of today who do
not like or do not have time to derive and prove mathematical results. It can
also serve as a reference to MATLAB applications for professional engineers
and scientists, since many of the MATLAB codes presented after introducing
each algorithm’s basic ideas can easily be modified to solve similar problems
even by those who do not know what is going on inside the MATLAB routines
and the algorithms they use. Just as most drivers only have to know where to
go and how to drive a car to get to their destinations, most users only have to
know how to define the problems they want to solve using MATLAB and how
to use the corresponding routines to solve their problems. We never deny that
detailed knowledge about the algorithm (engine) of the program (car) is helpful
for getting safely to the solution (destination); we only imply that one-time users
of any MATLAB program or routine may use this book as well as the students
who want to understand the underlying principle of each algorithm.
In this book, we focus on understanding the fundamental mathematical con-
cepts and mastering problem-solving skills using numerical methods with the
help of MATLAB and skip some tedious derivations. Obviously, basic con-
cepts must be taught so that students can properly formulate the mathematics
problems. Afterwards, students can directly use the MATLAB codes to solve
practical problems. Almost every algorithm introduced in this book is followed
by example MATLAB code with a friendly interface so that students can easily
modify the code to solve real life problems. The selection of exercises fol-
lows the some philosophy of making the learning easy and practical. Students
should be able to solve similar problems immediately after taking the class using
the MATLAB codes we provide. For most students—and particularly nonmath
majors—understanding how to use numerical tools correctly in solving their
problems of interest is more important than studying lengthy proofs and deriva-
tions.
MATLAB is one of the most developed software packages available today.
It provides many numerical methods and it is very easy to use, even for people
without prior programming experience. We have supplemented MATLAB’s built-
in functions with more than 100 small MATLAB routines. Readers should find
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