Book Description
The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry, Numerical Recipes is a complete text and reference book on scientific computing. In a self-contained manner it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual practical computer routines. With over 100 new routines bringing the total to well over 300, plus upgraded versions of the original routines, the new edition remains the most practical, comprehensive handbook of scientific computing available today.
Customer Reviews:
talk about outdated.......2007-06-27
this book was likely a looker back in the day, but its 2007 now. Need to have better details for non "C"-users. wish i had bought "Idiots Guide to C".
A classic book of numerical algorithms.......2006-12-24
This book, although published 15 years ago, is still very useful. In fact, its more recent counterpart "Numerical Algorithms in C++" is a mess, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The explanations of the algorithms that occur in each section of this book are top-notch. It helps with such questions as "Sure you know how to evaluate an integral with pencil and paper, but how do you do it with a computer?" Everything from linear algebra techniques to integration and evaluation of functions to the FFT and spectral applications are explained clearly and coded up in C. The code is great too, with the exception of one problem that several reviewers have already mentioned - the author has a FORTRAN-like programming style in which each implementation has arrays going from 1 to n versus 0 to n-1. This does cause some implementation problems if you want to transfer the algorithms into another programming language. Overall, though, I can't think of one book that does all of the heavy lifting that this one book does as well as it does in the arena of numerical algorithms.
The book is now available online. Just type "Numerical Recipes" into Google and click on the Numerical Recipes Home Page to peruse the entire book free of charge. You might also find the "Numerical Recipes in C Example Book" useful. That book is simply the source programs that demonstrate all of the Numerical Recipes subroutines. Each example program contains comments and is preceded by a short description of how it functions. I know I found it helpful in many cases.
Very nice book.......2006-08-27
A must buy for students or researchers who need numerical methods. Comprehensive topics. A good place to start to deeper levels. Online book is good for quick look.
A classic, and still worth having.......2006-07-12
"Numerical Recipes" has been a staple in computing libraries for many years, and for good reason. It provides immediately usable implementations of all the workhorses of numerical computation, in production-quality form. Maybe there are better implementations out there, FFTW for example, but getting something to work correctly always comes before getting it to work fast. Numerical computation is a specialty, and vanishingly few of us are specialists. As a result, getting this much specialist knowledge for the price of a very few hours' wage, fully debugged and documented, is a great bargain.
I have to agree with the critics who point out that the Gnu Scientific Library (GSL) is more complete in some areas, and offers better licensing terms. This collection has its own strengths, though, and not just in documentation. The writeup, however, is the major interface between the software and us, the bio-ware. GSL's collection of 'man' (help) pages serves a purpose, but this book's exposition describes a lot more of the background and rationale for the routines. The code and man pages are self-evident statements of the implementation - but "what" is a very different question than "what else" or "why."
This one may not serve all needs. You'd be amazed how many it does serve, though. If you need more than a Matlab session for numerical computing, you need this.
//wiredweird
Great compilation of numerical routines for C programmers.......2004-12-17
I found this book indispensible in my effort to develop profitable trading systems for futures and options and in my research in factor analysis and, more recently, in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Anyone who programs in C or C++ and works with mathematics must have this book. It covers a surprisingly wide range of algorithms: routines are included for everything from handling Julian dates and solving systems of linear equations to determining eigenvectors and singular value decompositions, solving differential equations, doing numerical integration (quadrature), not to mention calculating fast fourier transforms, lomb periodograms and maximum entropy spectral analyses. While not always state-of-the-art, the routines are quite reliable (when used correctly), clearly-written, and easy to understand and use. I would strongly recommend this book (and the companion software) to anyone who programs in C and is literate in mathematics. I always keep a copy nearby.
Jeffrey Owen Katz, Ph.D.
Author: "The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies" (McGraw Hill, 2000)
Average customer rating:
- very nice conceptual overview
- Not for the practitioner
- Trash
- Excellent Introduction, Sparse on Details
- A Good Introductory Survey
|
Scientific Computing
Michael T. Heath
Manufacturer: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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ASIN: 0072399104 |
Book Description
Heath 2/e, presents a broad overview of numerical methods for solving all the major problems in scientific computing, including linear and nonlinear equations, least squares, eigenvalues, optimization, interpolation, integration, ordinary and partial differential equations, fast Fourier transforms, and random number generators. The treatment is comprehensive yet concise, software-oriented yet compatible with a variety of software packages and programming languages. The book features more than 160 examples, 500 review questions, 240 exercises, and 200 computer problems. Changes for the second edition include: expanded motivational discussions and examples; formal statements of all major algorithms; expanded discussions of existence, uniqueness, and conditioning for each type of problem so that students can recognize "good" and "bad" problem formulations and understand the corresponding quality of results produced; and expanded coverage of several topics, particularly eigenvalues and constrained optimization. The book contains a wealth of material and can be used in a variety of one- or two-term courses in computer science, mathematics, or engineering. Its comprehensiveness and modern perspective, as well as the software pointers provided, also make it a highly useful reference for practicing professionals who need to solve computational problems.
Customer Reviews:
very nice conceptual overview.......2006-07-22
Wow, people seem to be really split on this book. I had Mike Heath for numerical analysis/scientific computing and he was an excellent instructor, one of the best lecturers I've ever had. (As a consequence, I have a hard time separating the book and the class, so judge accordingly.) The book is based on his lecture notes, though he added some material and didn't cover every topic in the book. Just reading the book is useful to give you an overview of the point behind different methods. The goal of the class for which this book was written is actually quite conceptual. It was to give scientists (that's me: a stats researcher who makes heavy use of numerical computation) and CS people in areas other than scientific computing a leg up. It was only a first class for people in scientific computing, the rough equivalent of intro Physics or intro Probability/Stats for people in those respective majors. However, you *won't* be prepared to "roll your own" from this book. In fact, at the beginning of the semester Heath was very careful to note that if you have the opportunity to use a library function for most numerical programming, you are nuts to roll your own. Why? Numerical algorithms are usually extremely complicated and the authors of the code often spend years developing careful expertise on them. Frequently the formulas used to elucidate a given method are NOT the ones used to implement it. You need error traps, tricks to handle ill-scaling and other special cases, etc. These are things that someone who has a one-semester, superficial understanding of a topic simply won't have. So consider the book on the goals it set: it is an overview of a field. If you want to learn more about any one topic, you have to dig deeper and consult references and other works, but this is a good place to start. For this, the book serves admirably.
Not for the practitioner.......2005-11-17
If you are interested in Scientific computing from the viewpoint of the end user that is the guy who uses the method to solve practical engineering problems then this book is lacking.
Not enough methods in this book to constitute an introductory survey of the field. Every chapter gets heavy dose mathematical treatment, apparently Heath loves his math but for the rest of us it doesnt translate into know-how. Know how to solve equations using computational techniques. Very few derivations to back his mathematical swagger, very few examples (if any) and fewer numerical schemes to solve problems. Many of the chapters receive cursory treatment such as PDE's get about 70 pages of print. Far too little to do anyone any good.
He does talk about interesting issues such as conditioning and error analysis and computer precision and memory issues but it is done from such a superficial viewpoint that one cannot use anything to improve ones code. Not recommended if you want to learn numerical methods even if you have an excellent professor to learn from. His chapter on FFT's was even more abstruse and there was hardly any methods with which to solve PDE's.
I had this for a graduate course in Numerical Methods but ended up using Hoffman's excellent book on Numerical Methods.
Trash.......2005-10-14
If you want to have a solid understanding of numerical computation, this book is definitely the last choice. Many theorems are given without any proof or even intuitions behind them in this book. Even when a proof is provided, it's often far from rigorous. The organization of chapters is the worst I have ever seen, revelant materials are scattered over several different locations rather than put together. Take the SVD for example, it is mentioned in the end of chapter 3, but reappears in chapter 4, which is very confusing. If you are new to this area, please don't read this book. It gives you many many facts without explanations, which I think is not a good way to learn new things. David S. Watkins' Fundamentals of Matrix Computations is a lot better and easier to understand. It also emcompasses many detailed treatments of various theorems. If you have bought Heath's book, don't be sad, at least it can serve as a coaster.
Excellent Introduction, Sparse on Details.......2004-11-20
While sparse on the details of many of the algorithms and theorems mentioned, as an introduction it covers a broad range of material-enough for two semesters of study. The writing is lucid, and when a proof of a theorem is given, it is easy to follow and explained in english afterward. Rationale is given for everything, which is a great benefit to a student not familiar with the nuances of sophisticated linear algebra.
A Good Introductory Survey.......2002-11-05
This book excels at presenting a reader with little to no knowledge in computer science and a mild mathematical background (knowledge of differential equations as a prerequisite) with the fundamental concepts regarding scientific computing. The presentation of pseudo-code algorithms helps smooth the transition from analytical (pencil and paper) thinking to numerical thinking. The algorithms are presented in a manner such tha anyone with access to dozens of possible environments can apply them, though they are by no means complete, thus requiring some thought into the processes. The material covered is 110% of what an engineer will want to know, 90% of what an applied mathematician will want to know, and 45% of what a numerical analyist will want to know. In all, a great book to begin a foray into numerical computing.
Book Description
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.
Customer Reviews:
Horrible Book........2007-09-10
Honestly, this has turned out to be a horrible book. Particularly in the disconnect that exists between the text and the problem sets. Very few of the examples are useful to read through because they are trivially simple, while the problem sets seem to take particular delight in finding the hardest tricks to be solve-able.
I would highly suggest that anyone that purchases this book, already know what they are trying to learn, or have an excellent teacher that can fill in the gaps.
Book for the U.......2007-05-29
I bought this book for my college and it was excellent
Great Book.......2006-11-26
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.
Disappointing at best.......2004-01-04
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.
Book Description
This is the greatly revised and greatly expanded Second Edition of the hugely popular Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing. The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry Numerical Recipes is a complete text and reference book on scientific computing. In a self-contained manner it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual practical computer routines. With over 100 new routines bringing the total to well over 300, plus upgraded versions of the original routines, this new edition remains the most practical, comprehensive handbook of scientific computing available today. Highlights of the new material include: -A new chapter on integral equations and inverse methods -Multigrid and other methods for solving partial differential equations -Improved random number routines - Wavelet transforms -The statistical bootstrap method -A new chapter on "less-numerical" algorithms including compression coding and arbitrary precision arithmetic. The book retains the informal easy-to-read style that made the first edition so popular, while introducing some more advanced topics. It is an ideal textbook for scientists and engineers and an indispensable reference for anyone who works in scientific computing. The Second Edition is availabe in FORTRAN, the traditional language for numerical calculations and in the increasingly popular C language.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding reference book on numerical algorithms.......2007-04-24
This is the single best book that I have found for teaching numerical methods in science and engineering to upper division undergraduates and graduate students. Students often comment that this should be the selected text even in the programming course because it provides both an overview of the methods and examples that demonstrate the application. The discussions are excellent and the Fortran 77 programs easy to follow even if one is more familiar with C or C++. You should not purchase the Fortran 90 version of this book without getting this book as well because the Fortran 90 book does not contain the excellent discussion of the methods and procedures. Rather it references this book for discussion and simply provides the F90 versions of the routines.
Proprietary source the Achilles' heel for non-students.......2002-12-03
I first bought this text in 1994 while doing scientific programming for graduate school work. A fellow graduate student had suggested I use an undocumented routine that (I later discovered) came from Numerical Recipes (NR). I was impressed enough with NR's presentation of ideas that I also bought the example book ISBN 0521437210 (which I've hardly cracked since) and a diskette of source code (which cost as much as the book but worth it). I was able to do a lot of basic research quickly with NR code, and I still occasionally use NR's routines.
The authors have certainly done a good job assimilating a lot of material. Since other reviewers have done well to highlight the importance and utility of this landmark book, there is no need to repeat those sentiments here. However, to this title's detriment, the authors consider their book to be a proprietary library of source code more valuable than the explanatory text discussing it (one can in fact download the text on-line though it's hardly worth the hassle). This perception is ironic since the authors confess that "the lineage of many programs in common circulation is often unclear" (p.xviii), and many details of presentation, ideas, and algorithms are clearly "borrowed" from other excellent (some now out-of-print) numerical methods books or journals.
I often wondered why NR routines occasionally adopted bizarre and/or obviously inefficient programming structures - over time I decided that this was probably done to make these algorithms appear as so not to clearly violate other published material. As a student, NR's legal disclaimers regarding derivative works (p.xvi) never bothered me and I was willing to overlook the sometimes unpolished source code insofar as it functioned properly. However, as a professional I now find the lack of fair-use provisions on the uncompiled source way too restrictive to rely on these routines in good conscience (I have to buy another textbook or license for every soft copy or machine upon which the source code resides!). I suspect this policy ultimately hurts NR's textbook sales: it would be nice to able to use and pass along the source code between professional colleagues without restriction because most would certainly buy (if they don't already own) the textbook to understand what the source does (just as I did). Source code used in scientific programming is practically worthless without proper documentation, and there's no better documentation than a full length textbook!
I have since expanded my numerical methods library to other references supporting true public-domain codes. With an expanded basis of comparison, I regret to say that I am becoming less and less impressed with NR's implementations and explanations. I am finding many of NR's algorithms to be inefficient or unnecessarily approximate, and - on rare occasion - buggy. There have been quite a few bugs uncovered over the years, and the NR web site has done a good job of keeping track of them (although I know of at least one bug uncorrected by NR to this day).
This book is excellent for students wanting a good reference for quick and dirty types of analyses or scientific computing. Professional programmers, scientists, engineers, specialists or analysts performing software development for laboratory or scientific research would be well advised to reference this title, but ultimately they will likely need to rely other resources if they require efficient and/or unrestricted (public-domain) source codes for their work.
(P.S. - A reviewer elsewhere noted that the "quality of the binding was terrible" and I've also found this to be the case. My hardcover is literally had to be taped on after a few years of use.)
A Useful Tool for Programmers, Researchers, and Students.......2002-07-05
This book contains hundreds of "canned codes" in the FORTRAN language. The book provides several variations of many popular numerical techniques and provides the most stream line (comp. time) codes available. Most codes allow for optimization to be build in, such as an RK4 (4th Order Runge-Kutta) with variable steps sizes. Great if you don't want to write your own code for a subroutine, or it you just don't know the method well enough to write it yourself. The book also provides some basic explaination of the techniques and codes with is very helpful so that the code is less of a black box, although its not that detailed.
There is also a CD available that has the codes already written and ready to go. I prefer to type it in on my own, or just make my own because it gives a better udnerstanding of what the code is doing. The biggest turn-off for me is that some codes have subroutines upon subroutines which can make things a mess.
All around a useful tool for programmers, researchers, and students.
Indispensible, a classic in the field.......2001-07-10
This volume, and its companions for other programming languages, is an absolute classic. The authors strike the right balance between cookbook solutions and theory, so that most of us get just enough background to choose the right algorithm but not so much to get drowned in theory. This edition is the first devoted only to Fortran, but is the second edition published by the authors. It includes a number of additions and corrections, many of which appeared in Computers in Physics (now the journal Computing in Science and Engineering published jointly by the IEEE and the APS). My only criticism is, where were these books twenty years ago when I needed them? I would recommend these books to anyone involved in the application of numerical methods. They are tremendous time savers.
I never bothered with the discs, as most of the routines are fairly short and not a problem to type in, but I recommend the companion example books to help get the routines running.
Routines an more routines.......2001-07-05
If you ever had to program a complicated numerical algorithm, such as SVD decomposition, Bessel functions, eigensystems or Fourier transform, you will know how useful this book is. All those problems, and many others, are presented, the theory is explained and the full code of a routine, which solves it, is given. This version brings the codes in FORTRAN 77, but there are versions for Pascal, C++ and Basic. If you need any routine, you just have to "cut and paste" it from the book into your program.
Book Description
The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry, Numerical Recipes is a comprehensive text and reference work on scientific computing. Thoroughly self-contained, it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual, practical computer routines. This new version incorporates completely new C++ versions of the more than 300 Numerical Recipes Second Edition routines widely recognized as the most accessible and practical basis for scientific computing, in addition to including the full mathematical and explanatory contents of Numerical Recipes in C. Key Features:
Includes linear algebra, interpolation, special functions, random numbers, nonlinear sets of equations, optimization, eigensystems, Fourier methods and wavelets, statistical tests, ODEs and PDEs, integral equations, and inverse theory.
A wealth of tricks and tips for scientific computing in C++
The routines, in ANSI/ISO C++ source code, can be used with almost any existing C++ vector/matrix class library, according to user preference
Includes a simple class library for stand-alone use Other new Numerical Recipes products for your library...
Numerical Recipes Example Book [C++]
Numerical Recipes Code CDROM with Windows, DOS, or Macintosh Single Screen License--v2.10 including C++, Second Edition
Numerical Recipes Code CDROM with LINUX or UNIX Single Screen License v2.10 including C++, Second Edition
Numerical Recipes Code CDROM with Windows, DOS, or Macintosh Single Screen License
Customer Reviews:
Definitive book for scientific computing.......2007-06-29
Forget about the bad comment about this book. Those guys do not understand scientific computing at all.
About C style functions and C++ classes: for speed, C style functions still take the lead. The method provided here considered speed seriously. even in vector wrapping, reference trick is used everywhere to max speed.
If you are professional programmer, you will appreciate the careful design in vector and matrix. I am not saying it is perfect. There are better ways to handle vector and matrix more consistently, like boost lib. but within the limited scope of this book, the care for details is just incredibly good.
And the extra charge for the typed program, it is worth it. So stop complaining please.
Disappointed.......2007-03-12
I returned this book. The licensing is very restrictive. The book comes with an "Immediate License" that allows you to type the routines into your computer and use for personal and noncommercial purposes. Any other use or distribution requires the purchase of an additional license.
Some of the routines (Quicksort, p 336) are not very well coded: a bunch of one letter variable names, loops that only exit on break.
This book contains recipes in C piled together in one class, DON'T BUY.......2007-01-25
Book contains the same numerical procedures as in recipes in C piled up in one class. Using this book is like using C without exploitation of object capacities on C++.
What I would recommend is to get the vector library Blitz++ and Numerical recipes in C; both are available for free on-line. Using Blitz++ you achieve speed of Fortran 90 and easy exposition of C++.
And that's what author of this book should have done, write all the procedures based on blitz++.
This book uses C++ only in its title.
context not included.......2006-11-21
Have only read over the first four chapters but so far the book seems to be little more than a print out of minimally commented source code with no context as to how/where/why one would apply the code or even explanations of what the code is doing. All code seen so far relies heavily on the included classes so the 'guts' of the recipe is not transparent with in the chapter. Sample user input and program output are not always listed with code but rather at the end of the chapter.
Still may prove to be good reference.
C++ Recipes.......2006-11-03
It is very helpful in scientific computing. I recommend it for an experienced programmer. If you are a fledgling, get another book to complement it.
Book Description
This book provides a seamless approach to numerical algorithms, modern programming techniques and parallel computing. These concepts and tools are usually taught serially across different courses and different textbooks, thus observing the connection between them. The necessity of integrating these subjects usually comes after such courses are concluded (e.g., during a first job or a thesis project), thus forcing the student to synthesize what is perceived to be three independent subfields into one in order to produce a solution. The book includes both basic and advanced topics and places equal emphasis on the discretization of partial differential equations and on solvers. Advanced topics include wavelets, high-order methods, non-symmetric systems and parallelization of sparse systems. A CD-ROM accompanies the text.
Customer Reviews:
101 things to do with your pet supercomputer.......2006-09-11
Scientific parallel computing is what this book is all about, and it does a very good job kneading MPI into the mathematical dough. The book assumes knowledge of mathematics (through Calculus, in some sections, and quite a bit of linear algebra) and little programming experience. This is not a book on C++ programming (not even close, and it does not pretend to be), nor is it a book on MPI programming, parallel computer design, or even the setting up of a suitable software development environment. In fact, it assumes all of the above, which leaves the way uncluttered for the exploration of the application of parallel algorithms upon familiar mathematical concepts.
An introductory C++ section is provided to get things rolling, though the level of C++ in the book amounts to simple classes and cin / cout in lieu of C's `printf' nonsense. This is good news, because it maintains the book's focus on the parallelization of mathematical procedures rather than on the irrelevant details of how cute it would all look wrapped up in a needlessly complex object hierarchy. Basic applied C++ and MPI, as and when needed to get the job done.
I personally use this text at home on my home-grown parallel Linux computer to investigate the partitioning of algorithms, such as going from a complex function to a Taylor series that may then be distributed to compute nodes.
Further MPI, C/C++, and extremely high-level parallel concepts are introduced through the book in a natural progression, as the problems at hand require their introduction. This keeps the book from being bogged down and off-topic. Kudos to the authors for remaining on course through a sea of such tempting distractions.
The book is the `how'. BYOW:)
ps: my CD was damaged so couldn't evaluate it.
4-stars
Should be improved........2006-02-20
The authors attempted to combine introductory material in C++, numerical methods and parallel computing. That is quite a brave endevaour. They certainly break the new ground writing an introductory material for a "simulation scientist", but I believe they have achieved mixed success.
On the one hand, the material they present on all subjects is really top quality, packed with 100% usefull information. Bibliography is also very good and usefull. But the organisation of the book is quite confusing. They introduce all the topics toogether - throughtout the book. Hence each chapter introduces some numerical algorithms, few new concepts in C++ and eventually MPI. I beleive a novice would experience serious difficulties following it. For example, authors introduce objects before introducing curly braces "{}" as scope delimiters and before semicolon ";" as statement delimiters.
Further, very soon after introducung the very basic concepts in C++, the authors move on to BLAS. BLAS is usefull, of course, but a novice in C++ may wonder why does he needs libraries written in Fortran, if C++ is a language of the choice for numerical computations. (At least it is claimed so by the authors).
Another confusing example is the one of memory memory access. In section 2.2.6 Memory Management, (pg. 41) the authors introduce basic concepts of memory management and how can loop constructs influence the efficiency of the code. Very usefull indeed, no question about it. But very soon bellow, in section 2.2.8 Exploiting the Structure of the Sparse Matrices, they come up with the claim (pg. 58): "... optimization-savy individuals, as the old saying goes, often miss the forest for the threes" :-( Hence, a novice reader might think: "Well, why do I need to worry about the memory management explained just 17 pages above?".
My most serious critic of this book by far (and I hope the authors will read this) are the contents pages. The contents list only chapters and first level sub-chapters. Secind level chapters are not present!!! That makes the book very hard to use as a reference material. That is really a pitty, since there is some good material in it which is hard to find and might stay hidden. (For example, the chapter I mentioned above: 2.2.6 Memory management is NOT in the contents, so I had to browse slowly throught the book to find it and refer it here). I suggest the authors introduce: "Contents at a glance" (the present one) and a "Detailed Contents", where one could find references to all the chapters in the book. The contents is THE reason why I gave this book 3 stars instead of 4. One it lost on the confusing organisation of the book.
I think the authors should have organised the book in four parts: 1 - Numerical algorithms, 2 - C++ and 3 - Parallel computing with MPI, 4 - Advanced topics. Part 1 could introduce numerical algorithms and have pointers to their implementations in Part 2 and corresponding parallel implementations in Part 3. Part 2 and 3 could have started with introductions, which a reader already familiar with those subjects, could skip. Part 4, could bring advanced topics, such as optimisation, BLAS, etc.
Bottom line, it is:
- brave and usefull endevaour,
- full of excellent material,
- organized confusingly,
- and has a very poor contents.
Buy it if you are simulation scientist or teacher, but prepare to struggle with its organisation and contents.
Combining mathematics with modern computing.......2005-09-30
The book contains advanced numerical mathematics algorithms and
fundamental elements of parallel computation.
It will be useful for those academic instructors who believe that students should be shown the entire solution process
from mathematical problem definition to computer implementation. It has been used as a textbook at several leading American and European universities.
The authors professors Karniadakis and Kilby are innovators who demonstrate that combining education of applied mathematics with computer science is possible and extremely useful for students and their future employers.
Great book to get acquainted with numerical analysis.......2005-06-02
This book is great in describing some of the most important concepts and algorithms needed for the beginning numerical analyst. The book claims that it can be picked up by a complete novice and teach C++, MPI, and scientfic computing. I would say that the math goes very quickly and not quite as rigorous as necessary for the typical novice. The C++ is pretty basic but still the book leaves the reader a sense of confusion. This is largely because the book treats a large amount of the library functions as black boxes. The MPI starts very basic and gradually introduces the major concepts.
My recommendation for anyone reading the book is to supplement it with a good linear algebra book (such as Demmel) and book on C++ (The C++ programming language). For further study on MPI, Using MPI would be a good supplement. That way whenever you have a concept that isn't fully described, you have a source to get it from.
The book gets a high rating for going over the right content and doing so in a applied manner that gives the reader the skills to become a numerical analyst.
Book Description
Since the publication of "Spectral Methods in Fluid Dynamics", spectral methods, particularly in their multidomain version, have become firmly established as a mainstream tool for scientific and engineering computation. While retaining the tight integration between the theoretical and practical aspects of spectral methods that was the hallmark of the earlier book, Canuto et al. now incorporate the many improvements in the algorithms and the theory of spectral methods that have been made since 1988. The initial treatment Fundamentals in Single Domains discusses the fundamentals of the approximation of solutions to ordinary and partial differential equations on single domains by expansions in smooth, global basis functions. The first half of the book provides the algorithmic details of orthogonal expansions, transform methods, spectral discretization of differential equations plus their boundary conditions, and solution of the discretized equations by direct and iterative methods. The second half furnishes a comprehensive discussion of the mathematical theory of spectral methods on single domains, including approximation theory, stability and convergence, and illustrative applications of the theory to model boundary-value problems. Both the algorithmic and theoretical discussions cover spectral methods on tensor-product domains, triangles and tetrahedra. All chapters are enhanced with material on the Galerkin with numerical integration version of spectral methods. The discussion of direct and iterative solution methods is greatly expanded as are the set of numerical examples that illustrate the key properties of the various types of spectral approximations and the solution algorithms.
A companion book "Evolution to Complex Geometries and Applications to Fluid Dynamics" contains an extensive survey of the essential algorithmic and theoretical aspects of spectral methods for complex geometries and provides detailed discussions of spectral algorithms for fluid dynamics in simple and complex geometries.
Book Description
These example books published as part of the Numerical Recipes, Second Edition series are source programs that demonstrate all of the Numerical Recipes subroutines. Each example program contains comments and is prefaced by a short description of how it functions. The books consist of all the material from the original edition as well as new material from the Second Edition. They will be valuable for readers who wish to incorporate procedures and subroutines into their own source programs. They are available in Fortran, C, and C++.
Customer Reviews:
Handy companion for Numerical Recipes in C.......2007-03-09
If you need to see programming examples on how to use the numerical algorithms that have been transformed into C code in Press' classic Numerical Recipes in C, then this is a very handy little book. Every chapter in this book has a one-to-one correspondence with the chapters in Numerical Recipes. The code is clear and well-commented. However, there is one draw-back. The code in this book is written in the same annoying Fortran style as Press' other book. Press codes like a Fortran programmer who just won't give up the ship and do things like start his arrays at zero instead of one. However, assuming you have waded through Numerical Recipes prior to this, understanding his programming style is one of the skills you should have already mastered. Just remember there is nothing complex going on in this book. You are just being shown examples on how to use the subroutines in the other book. If you took the trouble to go through Numerical Recipes in the first place, it is likely you already know how you intend to use the subroutines it contains.
Another half for "Numerical Recipes in C".......1997-03-09
If you just see Numerical Recipes ,you will annoy the exact usage of codes. It is the practical book for the usage of codes in "Numerical Recipes". For real world, this is more helpful than "Numerical Recipes"
Book Description
The example books published as part of the Numerical Recipes, Second Edition series are source programs that demonstrate all of the Numerical Recipes subroutines. Each example program contains comments and is prefaced by a short description of how it functions. The books consist of all of the material from the original edition, as well as new material from the Second Edition. They will be valuable for readers who wish to incorporate procedures and subroutines into their own source programs. They are available in both Fortran and C.
Customer Reviews:
A great recipe.......2001-05-10
This is really a great book of numerical examples. It teaches you on how to use those "abstract" numerical recipes. From here you will be a good commander of both numerical recipes and numerical programming. You will learn a lot of practical experience. You can not miss it! enjoy it.
Average customer rating:
- Very good and helpful book for the engineer with fundamental
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Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations (Computer Science and Scientific Computing)
William F. Ames
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 012056761X |
Book Description
This volume is designed as an introduction to the concepts of modern numerical analysis as they apply to partial differential equations. The book contains many practical problems and their solutions, but at the same time, strives to expose the pitfalls--such as overstability, consistency requirements, and the danger of extrapolation to nonlinear problems methods used on linear problems.
Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Third Edition reflects the great accomplishments that have taken place in scientific computation in the fifteen years since the Second Edition was published. This new edition is a drastic revision of the previous one, with new material on boundary elements, spectral methods, the methods of lines, and invariant methods. At the same time, the new edition retains the self-contained nature of the older version, and shares the clarity of its exposition and the integrity of its presentation.
Key Features
* Material on finite elements and finite differences have been merged, and now constitute equal partners
* Additional material has been added on boundary elements, spectral methods, the method of lines, and invariant methods
* References have been updated, and reflect the additional material
* Self-contained nature of the Second Edition has been maintained
* Very suitable for PDE courses
Customer Reviews:
Very good and helpful book for the engineer with fundamental.......2005-02-16
This book is very detail on how to generate numerical methods for partial differential equations. Staring from basics, the author proceeds with detailed examples and more complicated ideas. This is book will be very helpful for the people having basic computational knowledge and scientific computing experience.
But the book is written in 1977. Some difficult ideas will be easier to be implemented on large scale computers such as Linux clusters or SGI machines. I also found one small shortcoming is that the problem complexity is not detailed discussed. This will be very important now for comparing different algorithms to accomplish the same problem.
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- Optimal Control: An Introduction to the Theory and Its Applications (Dover Books on Engineering)
- Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Third Edition
- Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Third Edition
- Physics: Principles with Applications (6th Edition)
- Probability and Computing: Randomized Algorithms and Probabilistic Analysis
- Probability, Random Variables, and Random Signal Principles
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- Requirements Analysis: From Business Views to Architecture
- Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers
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