A Course of Mathematics for Engineerings and Scientists: Volume 4

A Course of Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists offers a mathematics course for undergraduate students reading science and engineering at British and Commonwealth Universities and colleges. The aim of this volume is to generalize and develop the ideas and methods of earlier volumes so that the student can appreciate and use the mathematical methods required in the more advanced parts of physics and engineering.
This book begins with elementary ideas of vector algebra which are generalized and developed in two ways. The first is an account of vector analysis and the differential and integral operations and theorems concerning vectors. These ideas find their first generalization in tensor analysis and the transformation of coordinates, including orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. The second development is to matrices, where the properties of arrays of elements, linear equations, and quadratic forms are shown to be the generalizations of elementary algebra and, using 'vector space', of familiar geometrical ideas to n dimensions. The solution of differential equations by series provides a general method for the solution of ordinary and some partial differential equations.
A discussion of the properties of the solutions in the light of the Sturm-Liouville theory introduces the conceptions of eigenvalues and orthogonal functions, forming a link with matrices. A chapter on the special functions gives some of the better known properties of Bessel, Legendre, Laguerre, and Hermite functions, which commonly occur in the solution of boundary and initial value problems.