scientific article; zbMATH DE number 193628

Publication date 5 June 1993

coupled oscillators determinants differential calculus differential forms double integrals eigenvalues eigenvectors euclidean geometry Gaussian optics line integrals linear differential equations Linear transformations matrix algebra Minkowski geometry vector spaces

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

General applied mathematics (00A69)

Review text

One of the major problems in teaching a course in mathematics for students of physics is that a lot of mathematical methods should be made available to the student in a rather short period of time. For a written course this problem does not occur as long as its purpose is to serve as a mathematical reference work for the student. Hence a very detailed and general description of the corresponding mathematical theories can be presented in that case. More difficult is to provide a presentation of the fundamental mathematics needed by students of physics which can be understood within a reasonable period of time, exhibits the main stream lines of the theory and is suitable to accompany a corresponding series of lectures. The book under consideration represents an interesting approach towards a solution of this problem. The basic mathematical techniques are presented in ``elementary cases at first, some of them are taken up on a more general level later on. But ``elementary only stands for notational simplicity. The presentation is arranged in such a way that the main ideas can be learned in the ``elementary case without loss of generality. Clearly a lot of examples and exercises are given for the different topics. Furthermore at the end of each chapter the notations and techniques are summarized which should be known to the student after having read this chapter. The choice of the material for this first volume is as follows: Linear transformations of the plane, including affine planes and matrix algebra; eigenvectors and eigenvalues (in dimension 2) with an outline of Markov processes; linear differential equations in the plane, including the exponential of a matrix; scalar products, euclidean geometry, applications to coupled oscillators, a detailed exposition of Minkowski geometry; differential calculus in the plane; the main theorems of that theory; differential forms and line integrals; double integrals, including integration of 2-forms in 3-space and Green's theorem; application of the preceding theories to Gaussian optics; general theory of vector spaces and linear transformations; determinants. Knowledge of the calculus in one variable is required throughout. At several places the mathematical theory is complemented by examples from physics. Main tool for the theory of multiple integration is the calculus of differential forms. This first part of the course represents a very well readable and highly recommendable addition to the existing courses in mathematics for students of physics.

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