MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications 2nd Edition [Paperback]

Amos Gilat (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471694207 | ISBN-13: 978-0471694205 | Publication Date: July 17, 2004 | Edition: 2

Assuming no prior MATLAB experience, this clear, easy-to-read book walks readers through the ins and outs of this powerful software for technical computing, including:

• Generously illustrated computer screen shots and step-by-step tutorials applied in the areas of mathematics, science, and engineering
• Clearly shows how MATLAB is used in science and engineering
• Includes a completely new chapter on Symbolic Math
• Thoroughly updated to match Matlab's newest release, Matlab 7

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

An effective way to become MATLAB^® proficient!

Now updated to reflect MATLAB^®, Version 7, this practical guide offers an introduction to understanding and using this powerful program. Starting with basic features, the book covers everything needed to use MATLAB effectively––from simple arithmetic operations with scalars, to creating and using arrays, to three-dimensional plots and solving differential equations. Detailed images of computer screens, tutorials, worked examples, and homework questions in math, science, and engineering provide a thorough and effective means of mastering the program.

MATLAB^®, An Introduction, Second Edition, is a valuable resource for instructors, students, and practicing engineering, alike.

Features of the Second Edition

• New: Updated coverage reflects MATLAB, Version 7.
• New: Includes a new chapter (Chapter 11) on symbolic math, providing an introduction to this useful feature of MATLAB.
• New: A new section in Chapter 4 covers importing data.
• Examples incorporated throughout the book provide valuable experience running MATLAB.
• Annotated examples help users learn the program and its commands in an easy-to-use format.
• Sample programs, applications, and homework problems show how MATLAB is used in science and engineering.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (July 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471694207
• ISBN-13: 978-0471694205
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 0.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #500,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 3rd edition disappoints, November 20, 2005

By 

Neil Frazer (Kailua, HI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications 2nd Edition (Paperback)

I am sorry to say that the 3rd edition is a great disappointment compared to the 2nd. It is unnecessarily prolix, with a great many typos. The copy editing is so bad that in one place several lines of text are repeated identically. It is difficult not to conclude that the 3rd edition was rushed into print mainly to obsolete the second edition and enrich the publisher. It would be a mistake, I think, to reward the publisher for such ill behavior. Although this edition contains some material not in the second edition, the extra content will not make much difference to a beginning student, and my advice to him or her is to purchase the 2nd edition, used. Neither edition treats structures or cell arrays, so I don't think a reader sacrifices much in the way of content by staying with the 2nd edition.

Here's my three-year old review of the second edition - I still like it.
This book was written for teaching Matlab to freshmen in an introductory engineering course, so most of the examples are from first year physics and engineering. Nevertheless, after looking at all competing texts, I chose it to teach Matlab to sophomore geology majors, most of whom had not yet taken calculus or physics. I was very happy with the results; by the end of the semester the students were well on their way to being competent programmers, and I think they will find calculus and physics much easier because of their experience with this book.

I chose this text because it is very well written--you can tell the author has had long experience teaching the subject--and because of its many excellent examples. Most people learn faster by example than by theory, and the examples in this book are easier to follow than those of other texts. Each example shows the command window with a gray background and white insets, or call-outs, containing explanations. The pages are attractive.

In the main text, Matlab commands are set in Courier to clearly distinguish them from the discussion itself. Sections are fairly short and easy to follow, and at the end of each chapter there are many problems of gradually increasing difficulty. The solutions to some problems are given at the back of the book. The abundance of complete examples makes it easy to skip around in the book as soon as students are familiar with Matlab syntax. There are astonishingly few typos and none were serious. Cell arrays and structures are used only where needed for particular commands, a wise pedagogical decision. I particularly enjoyed the second edition's new chapter on symbolic math, as I had never used this part of Matlab in my own research.

The book is 7.5"x9.25" in size with 343 pages, and so is easy to carry around. It's inexpensive, as textbooks go nowadays.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reader, April 22, 2007

By 

Parijat Sengupta (West Lafayette) - See all my reviews

This review is from: MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications 2nd Edition (Paperback)

If you plan to start with Matlab with no prior experience, this book beats most of the other available titles.Since an inside view of the book is not available on Amazon, I will for the benefit of others list out the chapters here.Ch1 begins with the necessary introduction,developing familiarity with the command window,display formats and precedence of operators.It moves on to Ch2 and Ch3 where arrays are introduced and the mathematical operations on them explained.Ch4 is about script files,Ch5 on elementary plotting techniques using in-built functions like plot and fplot.Ch6 introduces functions and Ch7 extends the previous material to formal programming techniques like loops and control structures.Ch8 explains curve fitting and interpolation,Ch9 is about three dimensional plots and special graphics.Ch10, the last one of the book uses Matlab to do symbolic math which cover elementary algebraic equations.The examples contained in the book are from elementary physics and engineering,so if you are looking for more advanced material that has been treated using Matlab,this might be a little less helpful.The numerical techniques again cover simple problems like projectile trajectory,flow of water from a vessel with a small hole punched in its sidewall,RC circuits, viscosity and so on.Relatively advanced topics like Fourier transforms and applications to signal processing are also left out.If you are done with this book or feel that the material isnt of much help, I will suggest that you might try "Numerical Computing with Matlab" by Moler(he is perhaps one of the architects of Matlab).This book(electronic version) is available for free from the mathworks website [...].Overall this book does a good job in explaining details and is also generously sprinkled with figures and screenshots.Please try it if you are first timer to Matlab.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for learning the basics of MATLAB., August 17, 2007

By 

Brian Mckenzie (Klamath Falls, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications 2nd Edition (Paperback)

I purchased this title because I am starting a numerical analysis sequence next year using Matlab and I knew only how to plot in 2D and do simple calculations at the command line. After studying from Gilat's text for the past month or so I feel very comfortable using Matlab for all the basics and I am ready to learn how to exploit the full power of the program.

Each chapter gives just enough mathematical background to provide anyone with at least college algebra/trig enough to understand what is going on.
Although this book does not cover any topic too deeply, it does cover the fundamentals of many aspects of Matlab in a way that allows the reader to move fairly quickly through the whole book without getting bogged down in any one area.

In the end you will know the basics about how Matlab operates: how to work with vectors and matrices, how to write simple programs and function files, how to plot and format data, how to fit data to a curve, and how to differentiate and integrate both numerically and symbolically, and a bunch of other great tools for solving problems.

Also, as the other reviewers mentioned, the book makes very good use of graphics to show how input and output should look, as well as what exactly each line means.

I would recommend this text to anyone wanting to learn the basics of Matlab.