scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1173659

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to mathematics in general (00-01) General theory of mathematical modeling (00A71)

Review text

This book is a textbook for a mathematical modeling course at the upper-division undergraduate level. The prerequisites are knowledge of calculus, differential equations, and matrix algebra. The pedagogical intent is to help students develop a feeling for the use of mathematics as a tool in understanding the world. From the preface: ``The book is put together with a feeling that a ``modeling intuition can be nurtured in the mathematics student. It is mainly a matter of developing confidence, not just in problem solving, but in ability to approach complicated phenomena by asking a few simple questions. To this end and to encourage students to do much of the thinking on their own, exercises are built into the narrative. These exercises function as a governor: if they are trivial, the student can pick up speed; if they are not quite understood, a rereading of the text will be called for. Some require little work and may function simply to keep the student's pencil sharpened, but are designed to help the student take first responsibility for learning. Other exercises require some amount of thinking and/or search for data. There are also problem sections at the end of the chapters; these consist mainly of particular models, some of which may be suitable for a class project. Each of the eleven chapters of the book introduces a set of models. There is a chapter on stability and bifurcation, on growth and relaxation, on vibrations, on random processes, on complex systems, on snakes and chains, on waves, and on diffusion. These chapters are largely self-contained, allowing for flexibility in choosing topics for an undergraduate course.

Cited in

(8)

This page was built for publication:

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q4397691)