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Review
Great stories. Interesting and challenging problems. Instructive MATLAB code. Lots of physics. That's my in-a-nutshell assessment. . . . Nahin takes on the subject of using computers to solve difficult problems, many in physics, that couldn't be solved before computers. . . . This is one of those books that one can read as a spectator, enjoying the scenery, taking in the landscape, appreciating the rich stories--my relationship with the book--or one can dive in, study the many equations, run the code, and have a personal experience of how problems that were unsolvable just a few decades ago have succumbed to computers. -- Sol Lederman, Wild About Math
Number Crunching is most timely, given the escalating scale of economic, commercial, and financial transactions, necessitating thinking about, evaluating, and communicating on a much larger scale. . . . The presentation in Number Crunching is simultaneously accessible, readable, entertaining, daunting, sophisticated, and technical. -- Stephen E. Roulac, New York Journal of Books
Number-Crunching is packed with copious notes and references and augmented by significant challenge problems that take the reader beyond the text and which would make good undergraduate projects. . . . Nahin's aim is clearly to convey enthusiasm for the subject to a younger reader and to give a glimpse of what is technically possible. . . . He looks to convey the excitement that he and many of us had when first attracted to the physical sciences as we were growing up--the excitement at the realisation that, given a few tools, even an awkward teenager can make quantitative statements about the world. -- C.J. Howls, Times Higher Education
Paul Nahin, a prolific and knowledgeable expository writer, is a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire. What he offers in Number-Crunching might be described as a mix of (1) supplementary readings for courses in mathematics, physics, or electrical engineering, (2) 'challenge problems' intended as a brain-jogging call to prospective professionals, and (3) a garage sale of mathematical miscellania and esoterica. -- Philip J. Davis, SIAM News
[Number-Crunching] is impressive for several reasons. First, Nahin has found the right level--not too easy and not too hard. Second, the problem selections and topics are interesting and in several cases give surprising results. Finally, the book is just plain fun. -- "Choice
[A] highly entertaining and rewarding read. -- Dean Rickles, Mathematical Reviews
Number Crunching is most timely, given the escalating scale of economic, commercial, and financial transactions, necessitating thinking about, evaluating, and communicating on a much larger scale. . . . The presentation in Number Crunching is simultaneously accessible, readable, entertaining, daunting, sophisticated, and technical. -- Stephen E. Roulac, New York Journal of Books
Number-Crunching is packed with copious notes and references and augmented by significant challenge problems that take the reader beyond the text and which would make good undergraduate projects. . . . Nahin's aim is clearly to convey enthusiasm for the subject to a younger reader and to give a glimpse of what is technically possible. . . . He looks to convey the excitement that he and many of us had when first attracted to the physical sciences as we were growing up--the excitement at the realisation that, given a few tools, even an awkward teenager can make quantitative statements about the world. -- C.J. Howls, Times Higher Education
Paul Nahin, a prolific and knowledgeable expository writer, is a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire. What he offers in Number-Crunching might be described as a mix of (1) supplementary readings for courses in mathematics, physics, or electrical engineering, (2) 'challenge problems' intended as a brain-jogging call to prospective professionals, and (3) a garage sale of mathematical miscellania and esoterica. -- Philip J. Davis, SIAM News
[Number-Crunching] is impressive for several reasons. First, Nahin has found the right level--not too easy and not too hard. Second, the problem selections and topics are interesting and in several cases give surprising results. Finally, the book is just plain fun. -- "Choice
[A] highly entertaining and rewarding read. -- Dean Rickles, Mathematical Reviews
Review
Great stories. Interesting and challenging problems. Instructive MATLAB code. Lots of physics. That's my in-a-nutshell assessment... Nahin takes on the subject of using computers to solve difficult problems, many in physics, that couldn't be solved before computers... This is one of those books that one can read as a spectator, enjoying the scenery, taking in the landscape, appreciating the rich stories--my relationship with the book--or one can dive in, study the many equations, run the code, and have a personal experience of how problems that were unsolvable just a few decades ago have succumbed to computers. -- Sol Lederman, Wild About Math Number Crunching is most timely, given the escalating scale of economic, commercial, and financial transactions, necessitating thinking about, evaluating, and communicating on a much larger scale... The presentation in Number Crunching is simultaneously accessible, readable, entertaining, daunting, sophisticated, and technical. -- Stephen E. Roulac, New York Journal of Books Number-Crunching is packed with copious notes and references and augmented by significant challenge problems that take the reader beyond the text and which would make good undergraduate projects... Nahin's aim is clearly to convey enthusiasm for the subject to a younger reader and to give a glimpse of what is technically possible... He looks to convey the excitement that he and many of us had when first attracted to the physical sciences as we were growing up--the excitement at the realisation that, given a few tools, even an awkward teenager can make quantitative statements about the world. -- C.J. Howls, Times Higher Education Paul Nahin, a prolific and knowledgeable expository writer, is a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of New Hampshire. What he offers in Number-Crunching might be described as a mix of (1) supplementary readings for courses in mathematics, physics, or electrical engineering, (2) 'challenge problems' intended as a brain-jogging call to prospective professionals, and (3) a garage sale of mathematical miscellania and esoterica. -- Philip J. Davis, SIAM News [Number-Crunching] is impressive for several reasons. First, Nahin has found the right level--not too easy and not too hard. Second, the problem selections and topics are interesting and in several cases give surprising results. Finally, the book is just plain fun. -- "Choice [A] highly entertaining and rewarding read. -- Dean Rickles, Mathematical Reviews
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5 reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Mostly covers 1940-1980 era number crunching, but still a good read.
5 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday -- Question: If Farmer A can plant 300 potatoes an hour, and Farmer B can plant potatoes fifty percent faster, and Farmer C can plant potatoes one third as fast as farmer B, and 10,000 potatoes are to be planted to an acre, how many nine-hour days will it take Farmers A, B, and C, working simultaneously, to plant 25 acres? Answer: I think I'll blow my brains out.
That's the opening quote. The author suggests that if your reaction was less extreme than Vonnegut's, and you started working out an answer, then his book is probably for you! I've enjoyed his other books, about srqt(-1), and Euler's Formula, so I tried out this one.
The book has sample tricky problems involving boundary conditions, electric circuits, chaos theory, differential amplifiers, heat transfer, n-body problems, and predator-prey equations. These are all explained well.
Unfortunately, the book isn't really cutting edge. For example, page 329, on zeros of the Riemann Zeta function: "Trillions of complex zeros have been calculated since 1859, and every last one of them does indeed have a real part of 1/2." The actual story is more recent. The Zetagrid project calculated 935.7 billion nontrivial zeros by the year 2004. Xavier Gourdon then found a much faster method, and calculated the first 10 trillion zeros that same year.
The computers of today are roughly a billion times more powerful than computers of 1980 or earlier. Most of the book deals with problems solved by computers 1940-1980. Myself, I looked at the Mrs. Perkins Quilt problem, which involves cutting a square into a minimal number of smaller squares. I brought very little new to the problem, using the same 1940's methods as the author describes in his book Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt. However, I had a *hundred trillion* times as much computer power. Their old programs on my 2009-era computer vastly extended the known results. Any problem subject to computer attack that hasn't been seriously studied in the past 20 years will yeild new results to anyone using a modern computer.
I just reviewed How to Fold It, and in that book five college students and their programs found new discoveries on what could be folded from the Latin cross.
Number-Crunching is good enough to recommend, but a follow-up book that only has stunning number-crunching results from the last decade would be appreciated.
That's the opening quote. The author suggests that if your reaction was less extreme than Vonnegut's, and you started working out an answer, then his book is probably for you! I've enjoyed his other books, about srqt(-1), and Euler's Formula, so I tried out this one.
The book has sample tricky problems involving boundary conditions, electric circuits, chaos theory, differential amplifiers, heat transfer, n-body problems, and predator-prey equations. These are all explained well.
Unfortunately, the book isn't really cutting edge. For example, page 329, on zeros of the Riemann Zeta function: "Trillions of complex zeros have been calculated since 1859, and every last one of them does indeed have a real part of 1/2." The actual story is more recent. The Zetagrid project calculated 935.7 billion nontrivial zeros by the year 2004. Xavier Gourdon then found a much faster method, and calculated the first 10 trillion zeros that same year.
The computers of today are roughly a billion times more powerful than computers of 1980 or earlier. Most of the book deals with problems solved by computers 1940-1980. Myself, I looked at the Mrs. Perkins Quilt problem, which involves cutting a square into a minimal number of smaller squares. I brought very little new to the problem, using the same 1940's methods as the author describes in his book Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt. However, I had a *hundred trillion* times as much computer power. Their old programs on my 2009-era computer vastly extended the known results. Any problem subject to computer attack that hasn't been seriously studied in the past 20 years will yeild new results to anyone using a modern computer.
I just reviewed How to Fold It, and in that book five college students and their programs found new discoveries on what could be folded from the Latin cross.
Number-Crunching is good enough to recommend, but a follow-up book that only has stunning number-crunching results from the last decade would be appreciated.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Kindle edition stinks
15 Mar 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you like Nahin's writing style this is worth the cost of a paper edition. Beware the
Kindle edition. With my setting of the font size most of the mathematical/numerical items
turn to gobbledygook or worse and are unreadable! Since I have a scientific background I
could puzzle out what was intended, but that does not make for pleasant reading.
SHAME AMAZON FOR CHARGING MONEY FOR SUCH JUNKY TREATMENT OF THE BOOK'S CONTENTS!
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
I checked a sample of another book on mathematics and it also got the same treatment.
AUTHORS BEWARE!
If I knew how to get my money back for shure I would attempt to go through the hassle
it will entail.
Kindle edition. With my setting of the font size most of the mathematical/numerical items
turn to gobbledygook or worse and are unreadable! Since I have a scientific background I
could puzzle out what was intended, but that does not make for pleasant reading.
SHAME AMAZON FOR CHARGING MONEY FOR SUCH JUNKY TREATMENT OF THE BOOK'S CONTENTS!
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
I checked a sample of another book on mathematics and it also got the same treatment.
AUTHORS BEWARE!
If I knew how to get my money back for shure I would attempt to go through the hassle
it will entail.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Number Crunching
8 Jan 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you enjoy applied mathematics, MATLAB, fun with numbers, physics and electrical engineering, buy this book.
You'll appreciate his MATLAB treatment of the three body problem as well as his discussions of ladder networks.
You'll appreciate his MATLAB treatment of the three body problem as well as his discussions of ladder networks.
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