Numerical Analysis: Mathematics of Scientific Computing [Hardcover]

David R. Kincaid (Author), E. Ward Cheney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0534389058 | ISBN-13: 978-0534389055 | Edition: 3

This highly successful and scholarly book introduces readers with diverse backgrounds to the various types of mathematical analysis that are commonly needed in scientific computing. The subject of numerical analysis is treated from a mathematical point of view, offering a complete analysis of methods for scientific computing with careful proofs and scientific background. An in-depth treatment of the topics of numerical analysis, a more scholarly approach, and a different menu of topics sets this book apart from the authors' well-respected and best-selling text: NUMERICAL MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING, FOURTH EDITION.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Kincaid is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Also, he is the Interim Director of the Center for Numerical Analysis (CNA) within the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES).

Ward Cheney is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include approximation theory, numerical analysis, and extremum problems.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 816 pages
• Publisher: Brooks Cole; 3 edition (October 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534389058
• ISBN-13: 978-0534389055
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A higher level of rigor than found in most numerical methods texts, November 9, 2007

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Numerical Analysis: Mathematics of Scientific Computing (Hardcover)

I teach a course in numerical methods every other year and use Maple as the platform for the computer solution of problems. At this time, I am using "Numerical Methods: Third edition" by Faires and Burden and am quite happy with it. However, I am always trolling for better textbooks so that it is premise with which I examined this book.

The level of rigor is on the higher end of the scale, there are many more formal theorems and proofs than is found in most of the other numerical methods textbooks. Rather than using code in Maple or Mathematica, the algorithms are expressed in a lower level pseudocode. It has the appearance of a programming language; however some of the operations are expressed in mathematical form for brevity. This use of the mathematical syntax generally makes them easier to understand than if they were expanded out using a programming language. There are many exercises at the end of the sections, including a group meant for computer solution.

I will not be adopting this book for my class, the level of rigor is a bit higher than my students can easily digest and quite frankly, I am hooked on using Maple as the computer platform. Nevertheless, it serves as a valuable secondary reference, where when necessary, I can look through a detailed proof of a topic that I am about to present.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing at best, January 3, 2004

By 

Mark B. Campanelli "thunderfish24" (Bozeman, MT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Numerical Analysis: Mathematics of Scientific Computing (Hardcover)

The book was a major disappointment. I am glad that I did not purchase it for my class, but instead borrowed it. The ordering of topics and emphasis choices never seemed to make sense to me. The layout throughout most of the text is like one long, run-on sentence. The underlying structure of numerical analysis never developed and I was left swimming in meaningless details while the basics were short-changed by an over abundance of specialized algorithms. Perhaps the text's curriculum could be saved by a capable professor, but alas my professor was just as scatter-brained as the text. More pictures would also have been helpful. A replacement text I recommend, which covers the first, matrix theory portion of this book, is David S. Watkins' Fundamentals of Matrix Computations.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, November 26, 2006

By 

M - See all my reviews

This review is from: Numerical Analysis: Mathematics of Scientific Computing (Hardcover)

I think this book is lucently written and explains various aspects of numerical analysis in great detail. The proofs are stated in an understandable way and algorithms are presented clearly and in such a way that it is easy to implement them in the programming language of one's choice.