Bøger i Springer Undergraduate Texts i serien

Drawing examples from mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, economics, medicine, politics, and sports, this book illustrates how nonlinear dynamics plays a vital role in our world. Examples cover a wide range from the spread and possible control of communicable diseases, to the lack of predictability in long-range weather forecasting, to competition between political groups and nations. After an introductory chapter that explores what it means to be nonlinear, the remainder of Part I covers nonlinear mathematical concepts such as fixed points, limit cycles, fractals, chaos, bifurcations, and solitons, and nonlinear diagnostic tools such as fixed point analysis, bifurcation diagrams, and Lyapunov exponents, to name a few. Part II of the text presents illustrative examples of nonlinear dynamics that are highly relevant to the contemporary world. At the end of each chapter, a wide variety of problems are presented which extend the ideas developed in the chapter as wellas allow the reader to explore other aspects of our nonlinear world. The mathematical level of the text assumes good working knowledge of basic calculus and prior exposure to ordinary differential equations and the wave and diffusion equations. The book may be used at the undergraduate or graduate level to prepare science and engineering students for problems in the "real world" or for self-study by practicing scientists and engineers. The more casual reader can simply read the book for intellectual enjoyment.

This text on geometry is devoted to various central geometrical topics including: graphs of functions, transformations, (non-)Euclidean geometries, curves and surfaces as well as their applications in a variety of disciplines. This book presents elementary methods for analytical modeling and demonstrates the potential for symbolic computational tools to support the development of analytical solutions.The author systematically examines several powerful tools of MATLAB® including 2D and 3D animation of geometric images with shadows and colors, transformations using matrices, and then studies more complex geometrical modeling problems related to analysis of curves and surfaces. With over 150 stimulating exercises and problems, this text integrates traditional differential and non-Euclidean geometries with more current computer systems in a practical and user-friendly format.This text greatly extends the author's previous title, Geometry of Curves and Surfaces with Maple (Birkhäuser, (c) 2000), and has a different focus. In addition to being applications driven and motivated by numerous examples and exercises from real-world fields, the book also contains over 60 percent new material, including new sections with complex numbers, quaternions, matrices and transformations, hyperbolic geometry, fractals, and surface-splines and over 300 figures reproducible using MATLAB® programs.This text is an excellent classroom resource or self-study reference for undergraduate students in a variety of disciplines, engineers, computer scientists, and instructors of appliedmathematics.