Mathematics for the Physical Sciences
by Herbert S. Wilf
On This Page
Description
This book offers advanced undergraduates and graduate students in physics, engineering, and other natural sciences a solid foundation in several fields of mathematics. Clear and well-written, it assumes a previous knowledge of the theory of functions of real and complex variables, and is ideal for classroom use, self-study, or as a supplementary text. Starting with vector spaces and matrices, the text proceeds to orthogonal functions; the roots of polynomial equations; asymptotic expansions; show more ordinary differential equations; conformal mapping; and extremum problems. Each chapter goes straight to the heart of the matter, developing subjects just far enough so that students can easily make the appropriate applications. Exercises at the end of each chapter, along with solutions at the back of the book, afford further opportunities for reinforcement. Discussions of numerical methods are oriented toward computer use, and they bridge the gap between the "there exists" perspective of pure mathematicians and the "find it to three decimal places" mentality of engineers. Each chapter features a separate bibliography. show lessTags
Recommendations
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
12 Works 226 Members
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1962
- People/Characters
- Daniel Bernoulli; Friedrich Bessel; Hermann Amandus Schwarz
- Dedication
- To my mother and father
- First words
- Preface
This book is based on a two-semester course in "The Mathematical Methods of Physics" which I have given in the mathematics department of the University of Illinois in recent years.
chapter 1
Vector spaces
and matrices
1.1 VECTOR SPACES
A vector space V is a collection of objects x, y,... called vectors, satisfying the following postulates:
(I) if x and ... (show all)y are vectors, there is a unique vector x+y in V called the sum of x and y.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 28
- Popularity
- 983,390
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 1
