hes@ecsvax.UUCP (Henry Schaffer) (12/20/84)
Computing in Applied Science by William J. Thompson (1984) This book may have trouble finding an academic home, because it impinges on Computer Science, Mathematics and Science (particu- larly Physics.) It covers the Applicable Mathematics for a number of mathematical models used in science, and shows how to do the computing for them. The book is divided into two modules - Applicable Mathematics, and Laboratories in Computing, which are to be traversed in parallel. Major division headings - Applicable Mathematics: Intro to Applicable Math Complex Numbers and Complex Exponentials Power Series Expansions Numerical Derivatives, Integrals and Curve Fitting Fourier Expansions Intro to Differential Equations Second-Order Differential Equations Applied Vector Dynamics Major Division headings - Laboratories in Computing Intro to the Computing Laboratories Conversion between Polar and Cartesian Coordinates Numerical approx of Derivatives An Intro to Computer Graphics Electrostatic Potentials by Integration Monte-Carlo Simulations Spline Fitting and Interpolation Least-Squaares Analysis of Data Fourier Analysis of an EEG Analysis of Resonance Line Widths Space-Vehicle Orbits and Trajectories The book is nicely done and is quite readable. The Lab sections give pseudocode for most everything, and FORTRAN and PASCAL programs (tested and ready to go) for many important and general topics (where it would be too much for a student to write a *general* program that could be used in a variety of circumstances. The author is a Professor of Physics at UNC-Chapel Hill and has developed this book in teaching a physics course. The only warning I have about this book concerns the author's taste in puns. I nearly cracked up at his suggestion that the major contributions of the electrical engineer C. P. Steinmetz (1865- 1923) be honored by using his initials for the unit of frequency. --henry schaffer