The text will be used as a resource for you, but I will not be following it in detail, and certainly we will not cover all the materials it contains.
The motto of the course is "The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers" and that is a good thing to keep in mind. While the techniques we develop will get you an answer, the most important thing to think about is what that answer means, and also what it doesn't mean. No algorithm will be appropriate for all situations, so you need to know how each algorithm operates, and what are its pitfalls, so that you can apply it to the right problems and interpret it s results appropriately.
The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers. The book includes some algorithms or analysis that we will not cover in this class, and it should serve as a good resource for you in the future. In particular, the book treats topics related to those we will cover that you should be able to read on your own when you need them later on. The author gives a more mathematically complete treatment of error analysis and other topics than will we be able to do in ten weeks. It can be a difficult read for the novice, however, but it is well worth looking at once you have the experience you will gain in this class.
There are a number of other on-line resources that you may also find useful, including:
- Numerical Computing with MATLAB, by Cleve Moler
- Fundamental Numerical Methods and Data Analysis by George W. Collins, II
- Numerical Analysis for Engineering by Douglas W. Harder and Richard Khoury
- Numerical Analysis, by Richard Burden and J. Faires
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