Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Numerical Methods for Ordinary Differential Equations
Kees Vuik; Fred Vermolen; Martin van Gijzen · TU Delft Open · 2023
In this book we discuss several numerical methods for solving ordinary differential equations. We emphasize the aspects that play an important role in practical problems. We confine ourselves to ordinary differential equations with the exception of the last chapter in which we discuss the heat equation, a parabolic partial differential equation. The techniques discussed in the intro-ductory chapters, for instance interpolation, numerical quadrature and the solution to nonlinear equations, may also be used outside the context of differential equations. They have been in-cluded to make the book self-contained as far as the numerical aspects are concerned. Chapters, sections and exercises marked with a * are not part of the Delft Institutional Package. The numerical examples in this book were implemented in Matlab, but also Python or any other programming language could be used. A list of references to background knowledge and related literature can be found at the end of this book. Extra information about this course can be found at http://NMODE.ewi.tudelft.nl, among which old exams, answers to the exercises, and a link to an online education platform. We thank Matthias Moller for his thorough reading of the draft of this book and his helpful suggestions.
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Ordinary Differential Equations
Stephen Wiggins · Stephen Wiggins · 2017
This book consists of ten weeks of material given as a course on ordinary differential equations (ODEs) for second year mathematics majors at the University of Bristol. It is the first course devoted solely to differential equations that these students will take. This book consists of 10 chapters, and the course is 12 weeks long. Each chapter is covered in a week, and in the remaining two weeks I summarize the entire course, answer lots of questions, and prepare the students for the exam. I do not cover the material in the appendices in the lectures. Some of it is basic material that the students have already seen that I include for completeness and other topics are "tasters" for more advanced material that students will encounter in later courses or in their project work. Students are very curious about the notion of chaos, and I have included some material in an appendix on that concept. The focus in that appendix is only to connect it with ideas that have been developed in this course related to ODEs and to prepare them for more advanced courses in dynamical systems and ergodic theory that are available in their third and fourth years.
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Notes on Diffy Qs: Differential Equations for Engineers
Jirí Lebl · Jirí Lebl · 2014
A one semester first course on differential equations, aimed at engineering students. Prerequisite for the course is the basic calculus sequence. This free online book (e-book in webspeak) should be usable as a stand-alone textbook or as a companion to a course using another book such as Edwards and Penney, Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modeling or Boyce and DiPrima, Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems (section correspondence to these two is given). I developed and used these notes to teach Math 286/285 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sample Dirichlet problem solution (one is a 4-day-a-week, the other a 3-day-a-week semester-long course). I have also taught Math 20D at University of California, San Diego with these notes (a 3-day-a-week quarter-long course). There is enough material to run a 2-quarter course, and even perhaps a two semester course depending on lecturer speed.
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Elementary Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems
William Trench · A.T. Still University · 2013
Elementary Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems is written for students in science, engineering, and mathematics who have completed calculus through partial differentiation. An elementary text should be written so the student can read it with comprehension without too much pain. I have tried to put myself in the student's place, and have chosen to err on the side of too much detail rather than not enough. An elementary text can't be better than its exercises. This text includes 1695 numbered exercises, many with several parts. They range in difficulty from routine to very challenging. An elementary text should be written in an informal but mathematically accurate way, illustrated by appropriate graphics. I have tried to formulate mathematical concepts succinctly in language that students can understand. I have minimized the number of explicitly stated theorems and definitions, preferring to deal with concepts in a more conversational way, copiously illustrated by 250 completely worked out examples. Where appropriate, concepts and results are depicted in 144 figures. Although I believe that the computer is an immensely valuable tool for learning, doing, and writing mathematics, the selection and treatment of topics in this text reflects my pedagogical orientation along traditional lines. However, I have incorporated what I believe to be the best use of modern technology, so you can select the level of technology that you want to include in your course. The text includes 336 exercises – identified by the symbols C and C/G – that call for graphics or computation and graphics. There are also 73 laboratory exercises – identified by L – that require extensive use of technology. In addition, several sections include informal advice on the use of technology. If you prefer not to emphasize technology, simply ignore these exercises and the advice.
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Introduction to Physical Oceanography
Robert Stewart · 2008
This textbook covers physical-oceanographic processes, theories, data, and measurements, targeted at upper-division undergraduates and graduate students in oceanography, meteorology, and ocean engineering. In addition to the classical topics, the author includes discussions of heat fluxes, the role of the ocean in climate, the deep circulation, equatorial processes including El Nino, data bases used by oceanographers, the role of satellites and data from space, ship-based measurements, and the importance of vorticity in understanding oceanic flows. Students should have studied differential equations and introductory college physics, although math is de-emphasized.
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Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics
Douglas Cline · University of Rochester River Campus Libraries · 2018
Two dramatically different philosophical approaches to classical mechanics were proposed during the 17th – 18th centuries. Newton developed his vectorial formulation that uses time-dependent differential equations of motion to relate vector observables like force and rate of change of momentum. Euler, Lagrange, Hamilton, and Jacobi, developed powerful alternative variational formulations based on the assumption that nature follows the principle of least action. These variational formulations now play a pivotal role in science and engineering. This book introduces variational principles and their application to classical mechanics. The relative merits of the intuitive Newtonian vectorial formulation, and the more powerful variational formulations are compared. Applications to a wide variety of topics illustrate the intellectual beauty, remarkable power, and broad scope provided by use of variational principles in physics. This second edition adds discussion of the use of variational principles applied to the following topics: Systems subject to initial boundary conditions The hierarchy of the related formulations based on action, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and equations of motion, to systems that involve symmetries Non-conservative systems. Variable-mass systems. The General Theory of Relativity. The first edition of this book can be downloaded at the publisher link.
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Tea Time Numerical Analysis
Leon Brin · Leon Q. Brin · 2016
This textbook was born of a desire to contribute a viable, free, introductory Numerical Analysis textbook for instructors and students of mathematics. The ultimate goal of Tea Time Numerical Analysis is to be a complete, one-semester, single-pdf, downloadable textbook designed for mathematics classes. Now includes differential equations. Over 350 pages Over 1000 lines of code Over 200 figures Open source
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Integral Calculus with Applications to Life Sciences
Paul Tsopméné · University of British Columbia Library · 2025
Integral Calculus with Applications to Life Sciences is an open educational resource (OER) that covers an unusually broad range of topics—including integration, infinite series, differential equations, linear algebra, probability, and statistics—rarely found in a single textbook. Each section begins with clear learning outcomes and a motivational paragraph, often tied to applications in the life sciences, helping students see the immediate relevance of what they learn. Examples are worked out in full detail. Every time a calculus or algebraic rule is applied, it is explicitly stated at the point of use. Rather than isolating algebra review in a preliminary chapter, this text integrates algebra throughout, allowing students to reinforce foundational skills while learning new material. This approach is especially supportive for students who may struggle with algebra. Practice problems with complete solutions follow each example, and most sections end with an application to biology, medicine, or related fields. The exercise sections include not only standard questions but also critical thinking problems such as finding errors in worked solutions, constructing counterexamples, and solving real-world problems. The text includes final answers for all exercises at the back. Hyperlinks allow students to jump seamlessly between exercises and final answers. By combining clarity, rigor, accessibility, and real-world relevance, one of the main goals of this OER is to help students not only to succeed in calculus but also to appreciate its power in understanding the living world.
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Classical Numerical Methods in Scientific Computing
Jos van Kan; Guus Segal; Fred Vermolen; Hans Kraaijevanger · TU Delft Open · 2023
Partial differential equations are paramount in mathematical modelling with applications in engineering and science. The book starts with a crash course on partial differential equations in order to familiarize the reader with fundamental properties such as existence, uniqueness and possibly existing maximum principles. The main topic of the book entails the description of classical numerical methods that are used to approximate the solution of partial differential equations. The focus is on discretization methods such as the finite difference, finite volume and finite element method. The manuscript also makes a short excursion to the solution of large sets of (non)linear algebraic equations that result after application of discretization method to partial differential equations. The book treats the construction of such discretization methods, as well as some error analysis, where it is noted that the error analysis for the finite element method is merely descriptive, rather than rigorous from a mathematical point of view. The last chapters focus on time integration issues for classical time-dependent partial differential equations. After reading the book, the reader should be able to derive finite element methods, to implement the methods and to judge whether the obtained approximations are consistent with the solution to the partial differential equations. The reader will also obtain these skills for the other classical discretization methods. Acquiring such fundamental knowledge will allow the reader to continue studying more advanced methods like meshfree methods, discontinuous Galerkin methods and spectral methods for the approximation of solutions to partial differential equations.
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Numerical Methods in Scientific Computing
Jos van Kan; Guus Segal; Fred Vermolen · TU Delft Open · 2023
This is a book about numerically solving partial differential equations occurring in technical and physical contexts and the authors have set themselves a more ambitious target than to just talk about the numerics. Their aim is to show the place of numerical solutions in the general modeling process and this must inevitably lead to considerations about modeling itself. Partial differential equations usually are a consequence of applying first principles to a technical or physical problem at hand. That means, that most of the time the physics also have to be taken into account especially for validation of the numerical solution obtained. This book aims especially at engineers and scientists who have ’real world’ problems. It will concern itself less with pesky mathematical detail. For the interested reader though, we have included sections on mathematical theory to provide the necessary mathematical background. Since this treatment had to be on the superficial side we have provided further reference to the literature where necessary.
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Introducing Mathematical Biology
Alex Best · The University of Sheffield · 2023
Mathematical modelling plays an increasingly important role in almost any area of life sciences, and this interactive textbook focuses on the areas of population ecology, infectious diseases, immunology and cell dynamics, gene networks and pharmacokinetics. It is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning about how to model biological systems, including undergraduate and postgraduate mathematics students who have not studied mathematical biology before, life-sciences students with an interest in modelling, and post-16 mathematics students interested in university-level material. Some mathematical knowledge is assumed, and the mathematical models used are all in the form of ordinary differential equations.
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Calculus in Context
James Callahan; David Cox; Kenneth Hoffman · Smith College Open Educational Resources: Textbooks · 1994
Designing the curriculum We believe that calculus can be for students what it was for Euler and the Bernoullis: a language and a tool for exploring the whole fabric of science. We also believe that much of the mathematical depth and vitality of calculus lies in connections to other sciences. The mathematical questions that arise are compelling in part because the answers matter to other disciplines. We began our work with a "clean slate," not by asking what parts of the traditional course to include or discard. Our starting points are thus our summary of what calculus is really about. Our curricular goals are what we aim to convey about the subject in the course. Our functional goals describe the attitudes and behaviors we hope our students will adopt in using calculus to approach scientific and mathematical questions. Starting Points Calculus is fundamentally a way of dealing with functional relationships that occur in scientific and mathematical contexts. The techniques of calculus must be subordinate to an overall view of the questions that give rise to these relationships. Technology radically enlarges the range of questions we can explore and the ways we can answer them. Computers and graphing calculators are much more than tools for teaching the traditional calculus. The concept of a dynamical system is central to science. Therefore, differential equations belong at the center of calculus, and technology makes this possible at the introductory level. The process of successive approximation is a key tool of calculus, even when the outcome of the process--the limit--cannot be explicitly given in closed form. Curricular Goals Develop calculus in the context of scientific and mathematical questions. Treat systems of differential equations as fundamental objects of study. Construct and analyze mathematical models. Use the method of successive approximations to define and solve problems. Develop geometric visualization with hand-drawn and computer graphics. Give num
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Informal Calculus with Applications to Biological and Environmental Sciences
Tyler Seacrest; Debbie Seacrest; Rebekah Levine; Michele Anderson · TRAILS · 2021
This book is an approachable introduction to calculus with applications to biology and environmental science. For example, one application in the book is determining the volume of earth moved in the 1959 earthquake that created Quake Lake. Another application uses differential equations to model various biological examples, including moose and wolf populations at Isle Royale National Park, ranavirus in amphibians, and competing species of protozoa. The text focuses on intuitive understanding of concepts, but still covers most of the algebra and calculations common in a survey of calculus course.
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Introduction to GNU Octave: A brief tutorial for linear algebra and calculus students
Jason Lachniet · Jason Lachniet · 2017
This brief book provides a noncomprehensive introduction to GNU Octave, a free open source alternative to MatLab. The basic syntax and usage is explained through concrete examples from the mathematics courses a math, computer science, or engineering major encounters in the first two years of college: linear algebra, calculus, and differential equations.
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Calculus
Gilbert Strang · OpenStax · 2016
Calculus is designed for the typical two- or three-semester general calculus course, incorporating innovative features to enhance student learning. The book guides students through the core concepts of calculus and helps them understand how those concepts apply to their lives and the world around them. Due to the comprehensive nature of the material, we are offering the book in three volumes for flexibility and efficiency. Volume 2 covers integration, differential equations, sequences and series, and parametric equations and polar coordinates.
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A Gentle Introduction to the Art of Mathematics
Joseph Fields · Southern Connecticut State University · 2015
This book is designed for the transition course between calculus and differential equations and the upper division mathematics courses with an emphasis on proof and abstraction. The book has been used by the author and several other faculty at Southern Connecticut State University. There are nine chapters and more than enough material for a semester course. Student reviews are favorable. It is written in an informal, conversational style with a large number of interesting examples and exercises, so that a student learns to write proofs while working on engaging problems.
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Calculus for the Life Sciences: A Modeling Approach
James Cornette; Ralph Ackerman · A.T. Still University · 2013
Our writing is based on three premises. First, life sciences students are motivated by and respond well to actual data related to real life sciences problems. Second, the ultimate goal of calculus in the life sciences primarily involves modeling living systems with difference and differential equations. Understanding the concepts of derivative and integral are crucial, but the ability to compute a large array of derivatives and integrals is of secondary importance. Third, the depth of calculus for life sciences students should be comparable to that of the traditional physics and engineering calculus course; else life sciences students will be short changed and their faculty will advise them to take the 'best' (engineering) course. In our text, mathematical modeling and difference and differential equations lead, closely follow, and extend the elements of calculus. Chapter one introduces mathematical modeling in which students write descriptions of some observed processes and from these descriptions derive first order linear difference equations whose solutions can be compared with the observed data. In chapters in which the derivatives of algebraic, exponential, or trigonometric functions are defined, biologically motivated differential equations and their solutions are included. The chapter on partial derivatives includes a section on the diffusion partial differential equation. There are two chapters on non-linear difference equations and on systems of two difference equations and two chapters on differential equations and on systems of differential equation.
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Calculus for the Life Sciences: A Modeling Approach
James Cornette; Ralph Ackerman · A.T. Still University · 2011
Our writing is based on three premises. First, life sciences students are motivated by and respond well to actual data related to real life sciences problems. Second, the ultimate goal of calculus in the life sciences primarily involves modeling living systems with difference and differential equations. Understanding the concepts of derivative and integral are crucial, but the ability to compute a large array of derivatives and integrals is of secondary importance. Third, the depth of calculus for life sciences students should be comparable to that of the traditional physics and engineering calculus course; else life sciences students will be short changed and their faculty will advise them to take the 'best' (engineering) course. In our text, mathematical modeling and difference and differential equations lead, closely follow, and extend the elements of calculus. Chapter one introduces mathematical modeling in which students write descriptions of some observed processes and from these descriptions derive first order linear difference equations whose solutions can be compared with the observed data. In chapters in which the derivatives of algebraic, exponential, or trigonometric functions are defined, biologically motivated differential equations and their solutions are included. The chapter on partial derivatives includes a section on the diffusion partial differential equation. There are two chapters on non-linear difference equations and on systems of two difference equations and two chapters on differential equations and on systems of differential equation.
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Aerospace Structures
Eric Johnson · Virginia Tech Publishing · 2022
Aerospace Structures by Eric Raymond Johnson is a 600+ page text and reference book for junior, senior, and graduate-level aerospace engineering students. The text begins with a discussion of the aerodynamic and inertia loads acting on aircraft in symmetric flight and presents a linear theory for the status and dynamic response of thin-walled straight bars with closed and open cross-sections. Isotropic and fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials including temperature effects are modeled with Hooke’s law. Methods of analyses are by differential equations, Castigliano’s theorems, the direct stiffness method, the finite element method, and Lagrange’s equations. There are numerous examples for the response axial bars, beams, coplanar trusses, coplanar frames, and coplanar curved bars. Failure initiation by the von Mises yield criterion, buckling, wing divergence, fracture, and by Puck’s criterion for FRP composites are presented in the examples. Professors, if you are considering or reviewing this book for adoption in your course, please let us know here. Problem sets: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/104169 ePub and LaTeX source files: Expected late spring 2022
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Electromagnetics
Steven Ellingson · Virginia Tech Libraries · 2018
Electromagnetics Volume 1 by Steven W. Ellingson is a 238-page, peer-reviewed open educational resource intended for electrical engineering students in the third year of a bachelor of science degree program. It is intended as a primary textbook for a one-semester first course in undergraduate engineering electromagnetics. The book employs the “transmission lines first” approach in which transmission lines are introduced using a lumped-element equivalent circuit model for a differential length of transmission line, leading to one-dimensional wage equations for voltage and current. Additional ResourcesProblem sets and the corresponding solution manual are also available.