Numerical analysis for engineers and natural scientists. (Q2276641)

This book (originating from a course for students of civil engineering and electrical engineering) can be strongly recommended to engineers, physicists and other natural scientists needing effective methods in scientific computing, but last not least also to mathematicians collaborating with non-mathematicians in research or hard practice. The authors present the treated topics in a convincing synthesis of theory and practice, with well-chosen motivating examples, and when appropriate for understanding the principles not shying away from giving occasional proofs, use of basic functional-analytic concepts (like norms) and other analyitical tools. They lay emphasis on complexity considerations (as important for efficient applicability) of methods, furthermore on questions of accuracy (via condition numbers) and stability. An important aspect is the view on numerical algorithms as components (``building stones'') for treating complex problems after modelling these by splitting into mathematical subproblems. This aspect as well as the interactive combination of numerical calculations with experiments and measurements of their effects is stressed by examples already in the Introduction and the more so in the final chapter on simulations. Many exercises offer the student the opportunity to gain more insight and to aquire a solid working knowledge. To give a rough overview on the scope of the book let us look into the list of contents (decorated with a few reviewer's comments). Ch 1: Introduction. Ch. 2: Error analysis: condition, rounding errors, stability. Ch. 3: Linear systems of equations, direct solution methods. Ch. 4: Linear data fitting. Ch. 5: Nonlinear systems of equations, iterative solution methods. Ch. 6: Nonlinear data fitting. Ch. 7: Computation of eigenvalues. Ch. 8: Interpolation (including trigonometric interpolation and fast Fourier transform). Ch. 9: Spline functions (including data-fit smoothing splines). C. 10: Numerical integration. Ch. 11: Ordinary differential equations. Ch. 12: Partial differential equations (including difference methods, finite element and finite volume mehods for elliptical boundary value problems, parabolic initial boundary value problems, furthermore discussion of the concept of well-posedness and presentation of the Lax-Milgram theorem) Ch. 13: Large sparse linear systems of equations, iteration methods. Ch. 14: Numerical simulations: from the pendulum to the Airbus (containing among other matters an inverse problem in heat conduction, and a rather complex problem of compressible flow around an airfoil).