The course can require students to carry out a daunting amount of time-consuming hand computations like the computation of the Christoffel symbols. As a result, the scope of the applied topics and examples possible to cover might be limited. In addition, most books on this topic have only a scant number of applications.
The book is meant to evolve the course by including topics that are relevant to students. To achieve this goal, this book uses numerical, symbolic computations, and graphical tools as an integral part of the topics presented. This book provides students with a set of Maple/MATLAB® programs that will enable them to explore the course topics visually and in depth. These programs facilitate topic and application integration and provide the student with visual reinforcement of the concepts, examples, and exercises of varying complexity.
This unique text will empower students and users to explore in depth and visualize the topics covered, while these programs can be easily modified for other applications or other packages of numerical/symbolic languages. The programs are available to download for instructors and students using this book for coursework.
Mayer Humi is Professor of Mathematics at Worcester Polytechnic University. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Physics and Mathematical Modeling. He is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Differential Equations and has published over 90 journal papers. His research on the development and application of mathematical methods to atmospheric research and satellites orbits. Other research topics include mathematical physics, celestial mechanics, atmospheric flow, Lie groups, and differential equations.