Mathematical Methods for Mechanics: A Handbook with MATLAB Experiments in Bloomington, MN

Mathematics is undoubtedly the key to state-of-the-art high technology. It is an international technical language and proves to be a neternally young science to those who have learned its ways. Long an indispensable part of research thanks to modeling and simulation, mathematics is enjoying particular vit- ity now more than ever. Nevertheless, this stormy development is resulting in increasingly high requirements for students in technical disciplines, while general interest in mathematics continues to wane at the same time. This book and its appendices on the Internet seek to deal with this issue, helping students master the difficult transition from the receptive to the productive phase of their education. The author has repeatedly held a three-semester introductory course - titled Higher Mathematics at the University of Stuttgart and used a series of “handouts” to show further aspects, make the course contents more motiv- ing, and connect with the mechanics lectures taking place at the same time. One part of the book has more or less evolved from this on its own. True to the original objective, this part treats a variety of separate topics of varying degrees of difficulty; nevertheless, all these topics are oriented to mechanics. Another part of this book seeks to offer a selection of understandable real- tic models that can be implemented directly from the multitude of mathema- cal resources. The author does not attempt to hide his preference of Numerical Mathematics and thus places importance on careful theoretical preparation.