A Gentle Introduction to Scientific Computing

Book excerpt: Scientific Computation has established itself as a stand-alone area of knowledge at the borderline between computer science and applied mathematics. Nonetheless, its interdisciplinary character cannot be denied: its methodologies are increasingly used in a wide variety of branches of science and engineering. A Gentle Introduction to Scientific Computing intends to serve a very broad audience of college students across a variety of disciplines. It aims to expose its readers to some of the basic tools and techniques used in computational science, with a view to helping them understand what happens "behind the scenes" when simple tools such as solving equations, plotting and interpolation are used. To make the book as practical as possible, the authors explore their subject both from a theoretical, mathematical perspective and from an implementation-driven, programming perspective. Features Middle-ground approach between theory and implementation. Suitable reading for a broad range of students in STEM disciplines. Could be used as the primary text for a first course in scientific computing. Introduces mathematics majors, without any prior computer science exposure, to numerical methods. All mathematical knowledge needed beyond Calculus (together with the most widely used Calculus notation and concepts) is introduced in the text to make it self-contained.