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Preface - 2010 - Essential Matlab For Engineers and Scientists

This document provides a preface and overview of the 4th edition of the book "Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists". The book aims to teach MATLAB to professionals and students with no prior programming experience. It uses an informal tutorial style and assumes readers have never used MATLAB before. The primary audience is scientists and engineers. The book covers basic MATLAB features but is not exhaustive. It emphasizes hands-on learning through examples and exercises.

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wataya
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58 views2 pages

Preface - 2010 - Essential Matlab For Engineers and Scientists

This document provides a preface and overview of the 4th edition of the book "Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists". The book aims to teach MATLAB to professionals and students with no prior programming experience. It uses an informal tutorial style and assumes readers have never used MATLAB before. The primary audience is scientists and engineers. The book covers basic MATLAB features but is not exhaustive. It emphasizes hands-on learning through examples and exercises.

Uploaded by

wataya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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Preface

The main reason for a fourth edition of Essential MATLAB for Engineers and
Scientists is to keep up with MATLAB, now in its latest version (7.7 Version
2008B). Like the previous editions, this one presents MATLAB as a problem-
solving tool for professionals in science and engineering, as well as students in
those fields, who have no prior knowledge of computer programming.
In keeping with the late Brian D. Hahn’s objectives in previous editions,
the fourth edition adopts an informal, tutorial style for its “teach-yourself”
approach, which invites readers to experiment with MATLAB as a way of dis-
covering how it works. It assumes that readers have never used this tool in their
technical problem solving.
MATLAB, which stands for “Matrix Laboratory,” is based on the concept of
the matrix. Because readers will be unfamiliar with matrices, ideas and con-
structs are developed gradually, as the context requires. The primary audience
for Essential MATLAB is scientists and engineers, and for that reason certain
examples require some first-year college math, particularly in Part 2. However,
these examples are self-contained and can be skipped without detracting from
the development of readers’ programming skills.
MATLAB can be used in two distinct modes. One, in keeping the modern-
age craving for instant gratification, offers immediate execution of statements
(or groups of statements) in the Command Window. The other, for the more
patient, offers conventional programming by means of script files. Both modes
are put to good use here: the former encouraging cut and paste to take full advan-
tage of Windows’ interactive environment; the latter stressing programming
principles and algorithm development through structure plans.
Although most of MATLAB’s basic (“essential”) features are covered, this book is
neither an exhaustive nor a systematic reference. This would not be in keeping
with its informal style. For example, constructs such as for and if are not
always treated, initially, in their general form, as is common in many texts,
but are gradually introduced in discussions where they fit naturally. Even so,
they are treated thoroughly here, unlike in other texts that deal with them only xvii
xviii Preface

superficially. For the curious, helpful syntax and function quick references can
be found in the appendices.
The following list contains other highlights of Essential MATLAB for Engineers
and Scientists, Fourth Edition:
■ Warnings of the many pitfalls that await the unwary beginner
■ Numerous examples taken from science and engineering (simulation,
population modeling, numerical methods) as well as business and
everyday life
■ An emphasis on programming style to produce clear, readable code
■ Comprehensive chapter summaries
■ Chapter exercises (answers and solutions to many of which are given in
an appendix)
■ A thorough, instructive index
Essential MATLAB is meant to be used in conjunction with the MATLAB software.
The reader is expected to have the software at hand in order to work through
the exercises and thus discover how MATLAB does what it is commanded
to do. Learning any tool is possible only through hands-on experience. This
is particularly true with computing tools, which produce correct answers only
when the commands they are given and the accompanying data input are
correct and accurate.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Mary, Clara, and Zach for their support, and I dedicate
the fourth edition of Essential MATLAB for Engineers and Scientists to them.

Daniel T. Valentine

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