Mathematical methods for mechanical sciences

"A mathematical model of a physical system provides the engineer with the insight and intuitive understanding required to make efficient system design changes or other modifications. A simple formula is often worth a thousand numerical simulations, and can reveal connections between control parameters that might otherwise take hours or weeks to deduce from a computational analysis. This book supplies the undergraduate engineer with the basic mathematical tools for developing and understanding such models. It is also suitable as a review for professional engineers and graduate students. A firm grasp of the topics covered should enable the working engineer (educated to bachelor's degree level) to understand, write and otherwise make sensible use of technical reports and papers."--Back cover.