Preface

Scientific computing is about developing mathematical models, numerical methods and computer implementations to study and solve real problems in science, engineering, business and even social sciences. Mathematical modeling requires deep understanding of classical numerical methods. There are a number of commercial and open source tools available which provide a rich collection of built-in mathematical functions. These tools are widely used by researchers to model, solve and simulate mathematical problems. These tools also offer easy to use programming languages for users to develop more functions.

This book is divided into two parts. In the first part, we present an open source tool, numEclipse. It is a Java based tool modeled after MATLAB® and it is implemented as a plug-in for Eclipse, which is a leading integrated development environment (IDE) for Java programming. In the second part, we study the classical methods of numerical analysis. We present the numerical algorithms and their implementations using numEclipse.

Although we have tried to make this book as self-contained as possible, knowledge of calculus, linear algebra and differential equations is a prerequisite. Some exposure to a programming language will be helpful to follow the computer programs.

Such a small volume as this book cannot do justice to the vast area of classical numerical methods. The choice of some of the topics is based on our own preferences and teaching experience. This book provides enough foundations for a beginner to venture into more advanced texts in the subject area.