Product Description

This text emphasizes the intelligent application of approximation techniques to the type of problems that commonly occur in engineering and the physical sciences. Students learn why the numerical methods work, what type of errors to expect, and when an application might lead to difficulties. The authors also provide information about the availability of high-quality software for numerical approximation routines. The techniques are essentially the same as those covered in the authors' top-selling Numerical Analysis text, but in this text, full mathematical justifications are provided only if they are concise and add to the understanding of the methods. The emphasis is placed on describing each technique from an implementation standpoint, and on convincing the student that the method is reasonable both mathematically and computationally.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #67356 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

About the Author
J. Douglas Faires is a Professor of Mathematics at Youngstown State University. His research interests include analysis, numerical analysis, and mathematics history. Dr. Faires has won many awards, including Outstanding College-University Teacher of Mathematics, Ohio Section of MAA (1996) and Youngstown State University, Distinguished Professor for Teaching (1995-1996).

Customer Reviews

Good book for Numerical Methods Class
I had previously sat in on a Numerical Analysis class, and I have to say that this book was much better than the one that we were forced to use. The examples were clear, and the text focused much less on proofs and more on how to do problems and calculate their error. The sample programs on disk were also thorough, and included in several different languages (c, fortran, pascal, maple, mathematica, & matlab).

Almost good enough to make me switch
In my never-ending quest for the best textbook for each of my courses, I examine a large number of math and computer books. The current book used in my numerical analysis class is "Elementary Numerical Analysis" by Atkinson and Han. My standard criterion for changing is that the new book must be significantly better than my current favorite. By significantly better, I mean that the cost to me when changing is more than offset by the advantages that the new book gives the students.
While I consider this book on a par with the Atkinson book and maybe even a bit better, it doesn't quite cross the threshold. The coverage is what is ordinarily considered that of a one-semester course in numerical analysis, so in that regard it is still in the pack. A broad spectrum of exercises appears at the ends of the sections and solutions to the odd-numbered ones appear in an appendix.
I consider this book to be slightly more readable than some of the others that I have seen. Maple is used as the symbolic mathematics package used to illustrate the examples and a CD containing the code used to generate the examples is included. This book is good enough to tempt me to make the switch but not good enough to make me do it.

Saved me $140!!
Thanks so much for this book. At my local bookstore I would have had to pay $180. I went online and found a NEW copy for $40 - saving me almost $140. The book is fine, I use it as a textbook for class, and it is very easy to follow.