Mathematical Explorations with MATLAB

This 1999 book explores the mathematics encountered in first year university courses using the popular package MATLAB.

K. Chen (Author), Peter J. Giblin (Author), A. Irving (Author)

9780521639200, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 15 April 1999

324 pages, 60 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.48 kg

'I can recommend it to students with little experience in computing who want to explore mathematics …' P. Shiu, The Mathematical Gazette

This 1999 book is about the kind of mathematics usually encountered in first year university courses. A key feature of the book is that this mathematics is explored in depth using the popular and powerful package MATLAB. The emphasis is on understanding and investigating the mathematics, and putting it into practice in a wide variety of modelling situations. In the process, the reader will gain some fluency with MATLAB, no starting knowledge of the package being assumed. The range of material is wide: matrices, whole numbers, complex numbers, geometry of curves and families of lines, data analysis, random numbers and simulations, and differential equations form the basic mathematics. This is applied to a large number of investigations and modelling problems, from sequences of real numbers to cafeteria queues, from card shuffling to models of fish growth. All extras to the standard MATLAB package are supplied on the World Wide Web.

Part I. Foundations: 1. Introduction
2. Matrices and complex numbers
3. Whole numbers
4. Graphs and curves
5. Representation of data
6. Probability and random numbers
7. Differential and difference equations
Part II. Investigations: 8. Magic squares
9. GCDs, pseudoprimes and Miller's test
10. Graphics: curves and envelopes
11. Zigzags and fast curves
12. Sequences of real numbers
13. Newton-Raphson iteration and fractals
14. Permutations
15. Iterations for nonlinear equations
16. Matrices and solutions of linear systems
17. Functional interpolations and approximation
18. Ordinary differential equations
Part III. Modelling: 19. Checkout queues: long or short
20. Fish farming
21. Epidemics
22. Dynamics of snowboating
23. Tides.

Subject Areas: Mathematical & statistical software [UFM], Mathematics [PB]