The Mathematica GuideBook for Numerics [Hardcover]

Michael Trott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0387950117 | ISBN-13: 978-0387950112 | Edition: 1

Provides the reader with working knowledge of Mathematica and key aspects of Mathematica's numerical capabilities needed to deal with virtually any "real life" problem Clear organization, complete topic coverage, and an accessible writing style for both novices and experts Website for book with additional materials: http://www.MathematicaGuideBooks.org Accompanying DVD containing all materials as an electronic book with complete, executable Mathematica 5.1 compatible code and programs, rendered color graphics, and animations

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews: "The numerics volume has two chapters. … offer a treasure trove of identities and formulas. … take the reader on a thrilling tour of the features of Mathematica. I am impressed with the breadth and depth of Trott’s coverage and his profound understanding of the strengths and limitations of Mathematica. … includes a multiplatform DVD-ROM which allows the reader to experiment with code and view graphics in color. … an invaluable resource and classic reference for scientists who use Mathematica in teaching or research." (Willy Hereman, SIAM Review, Vol. 49 (1), 2007)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1244 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (October 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0387950117
• ISBN-13: 978-0387950112
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.3 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #705,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceeding expectations, March 31, 2006

By 

Andreas Lauschke "Mooniac" (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mathematica GuideBook for Numerics (Hardcover)

Michael Trott's GuideBooks are an invaluable reference for the serious Mathematica programmer. The unsurpassed symbolic computation engine, superior programming paradigms, lightning-fast numerics, and state-of-the-art visualization can justly be considered four of the main pillars of the Mathematica system, and Michael Trott, himself a well-established and renowed expert programmer at Wolfram Research, provides the most in-depth coverage available in these areas. Unlike the contents normally to be found in a numerics book, this numerics GuideBook includes several methods and principles from other fields of mathematics and programming. This GuideBook is truly astonishing in terms of its breadth. The material is highly relevant for the ambitious numerics programmer, and the writing style is very readable, fluent, and consistent. The structure of the material is logical and break-free, and the examples are very well-chosen.

Several elucidating examples also further the knowledge about the mathematical or physical subject matter itself. Just to mention a few, I was amazed to discover that magnetic field lines of stationary flows are NOT closed in general, and some examples of modern mathematics and physics literature are used in contrast to classical physics, such as the continuous time random walk on a graph or quantum carpets in a solution, which provides an interesting classical vs. quantum variant. And next to textbook examples the reader will find many "real life" examples interspersed throughout the book as well, which makes the results quite "tangible".

Michael Trott includes a great comparison of Mathematica's superior compilable machine precision arithmetic (bytecode, instead of machine-code compilation), high-precision arithmetic, and interval arithmetic, all three of which are needed frequently depending on the numerics project at hand.

Needless to say, the book shows a profusion of carefully chosen graphics that help understanding the matter or result instantly. Here Michael Trott's expert ability as a graphics programmer is indispensible.

All references are hyperlinked through their respective DOI numbers. The DVD contains the texts and inputs of the other three GuideBooks as well.