Numerical Analysis using Matlab and Spreadsheets 1 |! x" {* j9 Q- [: |This book is written primarily for students/readers who have a good background of high-school- E8 T7 ~ p: H; q) M
algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and the fundamentals of differential and integral calculus.* A! `8 }1 o4 \! m7 e: G' s1 U
prior knowledge of differential equations is desirable but not necessary; this topic is reviewed in . x( R( K- T# o7 e/ [) A" m1 I, m7 qChapter 5. 4 W+ y5 L, U$ |1 ?, v$ lOne can use Fortran, Pascal, C, or Visual Basic or even a spreadsheet to solve a difficult problem. 0 C4 Q6 K6 ]* a& I' @0 w8 t7 xIt is the opinion of this author that the best applications programs for solving engineering5 B3 J6 b8 K }
problems are 1) MATLAB which is capable of performing advanced mathematical and / L5 M* I9 N& R3 f% j M: w1 Iengineering computations, and 2) the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet since the versatility offered by & y$ f, Z* a7 U: N1 K% E# O S z# Wspreadsheets have revolutionized the personal computer industry. We will assume that the reader6 g7 n( w. F( B3 k) E
has no prior knowledge of MATLAB and limited familiarity with Excel.