Numerical Analysis using Matlab and Spreadsheets * t0 @: P% S2 CThis book is written primarily for students/readers who have a good background of high-school 6 O4 T8 M8 |! C4 c# c4 Falgebra, geometry, trigonometry, and the fundamentals of differential and integral calculus.* A , g8 d! ~5 I8 o: Tprior knowledge of differential equations is desirable but not necessary; this topic is reviewed in5 f2 e0 O9 v4 M6 n n) ^
Chapter 5. 0 V) U2 k* D% T$ ^One can use Fortran, Pascal, C, or Visual Basic or even a spreadsheet to solve a difficult problem.- Z. V" e# O' @" q5 p
It is the opinion of this author that the best applications programs for solving engineering . y: h' ]+ y! yproblems are 1) MATLAB which is capable of performing advanced mathematical and5 [' ~4 M2 i; T9 c
engineering computations, and 2) the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet since the versatility offered by * W+ [& e# `/ u" Vspreadsheets have revolutionized the personal computer industry. We will assume that the reader3 x' L, ~5 ^, M
has no prior knowledge of MATLAB and limited familiarity with Excel.