Author Description

This book is a concise presentation of the basic concepts used in evolving numerical methods with special emphasis on developing computational algorithms for solving problems in algebra and calculus on a computer. It is written for undergraduate science and engineering students who have taken a first course in differential and integral calculus. The approach is to ensure conceptual understanding of the numerical methods by relying on students geometric intuition. The book provides coverage of iterative methods for solving algebraic and transcendental equations, direct and iterative methods of solving simultaneous algebraic equations, numerical methods for differen-tiation and integration, and solution of ordinary differential equations with initial conditions. The formulation of algorithms is illustrated with a number of solved examples and an algorithmic language based on English (and similar to PASCAL) is used to express the logic of the numerical procedures. This approach is thus different from that used in most books which either use a programming language like FORTRAN or use flow charts to express algorithms. The solutions to selected problems have been provided at the end of the book.