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03.0 PP Ix X Preface To The First Edition

This book is designed for engineers and engineering students, focusing on numerical methods rather than programming. It emphasizes understanding the methods and their applications, providing detailed explanations and examples of various numerical techniques relevant to engineering problems. The text avoids overly complex algorithms and excludes certain topics like partial differential equations, opting instead for more practical methods suitable for engineering contexts.

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10 views2 pages

03.0 PP Ix X Preface To The First Edition

This book is designed for engineers and engineering students, focusing on numerical methods rather than programming. It emphasizes understanding the methods and their applications, providing detailed explanations and examples of various numerical techniques relevant to engineering problems. The text avoids overly complex algorithms and excludes certain topics like partial differential equations, opting instead for more practical methods suitable for engineering contexts.

Uploaded by

qlsx0220
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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cuus734 CUUS734/Kiusalaas 0 521 19133 3 August 29, 2009 12:17

Preface to the First Edition

This book is targeted primarily toward engineers and engineering students of ad-
vanced standing (sophomores, seniors, and graduate students). Familiarity with a
computer language is required; knowledge of engineering mechanics (statics, dy-
namics, and mechanics of materials) is useful, but not essential.
The text places emphasis on numerical methods, not programming. Most engi-
neers are not programmers, but problem solvers. They want to know what methods
can be applied to a given problem, what their strengths and pitfalls are, and how to
implement them. Engineers are not expected to write computer code for basic tasks
from scratch; they are more likely to utilize functions and subroutines that have been
already written and tested. Thus programming by engineers is largely confined to
assembling existing bits of code into a coherent package that solves the problem at
hand.
The “bit” of code is usually a function that implements a specific task. For the
user the details of the code are of secondary importance. What matters is the inter-
face (what goes in and what comes out) and an understanding of the method on
which the algorithm is based. Since no numerical algorithm is infallible, the impor-
tance of understanding the underlying method cannot be overemphasized; it is, in
fact, the rationale behind learning numerical methods.
This book attempts to conform to the views outlined above. Each numerical
method is explained in detail and its shortcomings are pointed out. The examples
that follow individual topics fall into two categories: hand computations that illus-
trate the inner workings of the method, and small programs that show how the com-
puter code is utilized in solving a problem. Problems that require programming are
marked with .
The material consists of the usual topics covered in an engineering course on nu-
merical methods: solution of equations, interpolation and data fitting, numerical dif-
ferentiation and integration, solution of ordinary differential equations, and eigen-
value problems. The choice of methods within each topic is tilted toward relevance
to engineering problems. For example, there is an extensive discussion of symmetric,
sparsely populated coefficient matrices in the solution of simultaneous equations.

ix

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812200.001 Published online by Cambridge University Press


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cuus734 CUUS734/Kiusalaas 0 521 19133 3 August 29, 2009 12:17

x Preface to the First Edition

In the same vein, the solution of eigenvalue problems concentrates on methods that
efficiently extract specific eigenvalues from banded matrices.
An important criterion used in the selection of methods was clarity. Algorithms
requiring overly complex bookkeeping were rejected regardless of their efficiency and
robustness. This decision, which was taken with great reluctance, is in keeping with
the intent to avoid emphasis on programming.
The selection of algorithms was also influenced by current practice. This disqual-
ified several well-known historical methods that have been overtaken by more recent
developments. For example, the secant method for finding roots of equations was
omitted as having no advantages over Ridder’s method. For the same reason, the mul-
tistep methods used to solve differential equations (e.g., Milne and Adams methods)
were left out in favor of the adaptive Runge–Kutta and Bulirsch–Stoer methods.
Notably absent is a chapter on partial differential equations. It was felt that
this topic is best treated by finite element or boundary element methods, which
are outside the scope of this book. The finite difference model, which is commonly
introduced in numerical methods texts, is just too impractical in handling curved
boundaries.
As usual, the book contains more material than can be covered in a three-credit
course. The topics that can be skipped without loss of continuity are tagged with an
asterisk (*).
R
The programs listed in this book were tested with MATLAB R2008b under
R
Windows XP.

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812200.001 Published online by Cambridge University Press

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