Mathematics 229: Mathematical Modeling (Spring 2003)
"An easily understood, workable falsehood is more useful
than a complex incomprehensible truth."
This course will present a survey of mathematical models for problems in the
applied sciences and engineering. The real-world problems, coming from areas
like fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, electromagnetism, chemical reactions,
and heat transfer, will be formulated as idealized mathematical models.
Mathematical techniques, such as nondimensionalization, perturbation analysis,
stability theory and simple numerical methods, will then be introduced to
simplify the models and yield insight into the underlying problems.
Michael Reed
Textbooks
- (Required) Mathematical Models in the Applied Sciences,
A. C. Fowler, Cambridge University Press
- (Recommended) Mathematics applied to Deterministic Problems in the Natural Sciences, C.C. Lin and L. A.
Segel, SIAM Press
Prerequisites
Background in ordinary differential equations
and partial differential equations.
Course Materials
- This course illustrates the use of many of the key ideas in applied
mathematics for problems arising in biology, chemistry, other sciences and
engineering. There will be weekly problem sets and a final project.
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Last modified: 18 October 2002