 Trade In this Item for up to £9.60
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Vector Calculus (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £9.60, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
P.C. Matthews Vector Calculus "Written for undergraduate students in mathematics, the book covers the material in a comprehensive but concise manner, combining mathematical rigor with physical insight. There are many diagrams to illustrate the physical meaning of the mathematical concepts, which essential for a full understanding of the subject." — ZENTRALBLATT MATH
Product Description
Vector calculus is the foundation stone on which a vast amount of applied mathematics is based. Topics such as fluid dynamics, solid mechanics and electromagnetism depend heavily on the calculus of vector quantities in three dimensions. This book covers the material in a comprehensive but concise manner, combining mathematical rigour with physical insight. There are many diagrams to illustrate the physical meaning of the mathematical concepts, which is essential for a full understanding of the subject. Each chapter concludes with a summary of the most important points, and there are worked examples that cover all of the material. The final chapter introduces some of the most important applications of vector calculus, including mechanics and electromagnetism.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
This book is concerned with the mathematical description of physical quantities. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
This book is concerned with the mathematical description of physical quantities. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another reviewer on here says pretty much all I want to say. But I would like to emphasis the point that this book does require more than elementary vector arithmetic and such before you can grasp it really. I used this in the second year of my degree and had a good knowlegde of vectors and single variable calculus under my belt. I was laos familiar with aspects of multivariable calculus.
That said, this book was great in developing on that. It concisely delivers information well enough to ensure a graduate level understanding of all sorts of physics/engineering topics. It does pay special attention to integral theorems, grad div and curl and has a very useful section on suffix notation. This all paves the way for the penultimate chapter on Cartesian tensors. I did find it hard going at times, but if you are looking for a book that gives you a good grounding ready for application to a physical science, this is a good one.
That said, this book was great in developing on that. It concisely delivers information well enough to ensure a graduate level understanding of all sorts of physics/engineering topics. It does pay special attention to integral theorems, grad div and curl and has a very useful section on suffix notation. This all paves the way for the penultimate chapter on Cartesian tensors. I did find it hard going at times, but if you are looking for a book that gives you a good grounding ready for application to a physical science, this is a good one.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I understand why the other reviewer has 0 positive feedback!
If you have never seen any vector calculus before I doubt you'll make it to chapter 4. And if you do, that is as far as you'll go for a few months!
However, this book is very short for what it covers. So you can move fast. It fast but concisely transitions from basic operations with vectors to the main theorems and concepts of vector calculus like Green's theorem, Line integrals etc. Then it has an introduction to tensors and finally covers some good applications of these operations and theorems.
I assume that for somebody that wants to rapidly move from basic vector operations to advanced concepts in vector calculus this is a good book and, if completely and patiently followed, it allows the reader to understand the subject to a level good enough for any undergraduate course that I can think of. Having said that, as I say above, I dont believe somebody with just some basic understanding of the algebra of vectors can finish this book without going nuts. Thus I recommend that, if you havent done that already, read some elementary vector calculus, geometry (with vectors) and basic differential equations before you read this. Basically, that the author assumes no previous knowledge is "partially correct" but doesnt necessarily mean that it will be the best book for such a person. This is indeed the case for many books like this one.
Overall, I found it very good, concise and stright to the point giving good definitions and explaining the important bits of vector calculus necessary to follow any course in electromagnetism, elasticity theory and the like. In other words, if your aim is applied fields like these Ive just mentioned, read this book and do the exercises then the theory of these applied subjects will be much easier to follow. But if your aim is just pasing an exam, I guess this will be too much work! Its taken me ages to move on, you learn the stuff, but not fast enough to pass an exam. Then again I dont care about exams but thats why Im reading it.
If you have never seen any vector calculus before I doubt you'll make it to chapter 4. And if you do, that is as far as you'll go for a few months!
However, this book is very short for what it covers. So you can move fast. It fast but concisely transitions from basic operations with vectors to the main theorems and concepts of vector calculus like Green's theorem, Line integrals etc. Then it has an introduction to tensors and finally covers some good applications of these operations and theorems.
I assume that for somebody that wants to rapidly move from basic vector operations to advanced concepts in vector calculus this is a good book and, if completely and patiently followed, it allows the reader to understand the subject to a level good enough for any undergraduate course that I can think of. Having said that, as I say above, I dont believe somebody with just some basic understanding of the algebra of vectors can finish this book without going nuts. Thus I recommend that, if you havent done that already, read some elementary vector calculus, geometry (with vectors) and basic differential equations before you read this. Basically, that the author assumes no previous knowledge is "partially correct" but doesnt necessarily mean that it will be the best book for such a person. This is indeed the case for many books like this one.
Overall, I found it very good, concise and stright to the point giving good definitions and explaining the important bits of vector calculus necessary to follow any course in electromagnetism, elasticity theory and the like. In other words, if your aim is applied fields like these Ive just mentioned, read this book and do the exercises then the theory of these applied subjects will be much easier to follow. But if your aim is just pasing an exam, I guess this will be too much work! Its taken me ages to move on, you learn the stuff, but not fast enough to pass an exam. Then again I dont care about exams but thats why Im reading it.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book because I wanted to revive my memories of div, grad, curl etc had faded over many years. The book is small and well focused. There's no flab in it. I highly recommend it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Satisfying exploration of essential part mathematical physics
Physical
The book is slim, (182 pages) and printed upon quality paper, but not the glossy kind. Read more
The book is slim, (182 pages) and printed upon quality paper, but not the glossy kind. Read more
Published 6 months ago by ab..c
A good read
This is a very good book, actuly written by one of my lectures, he was a very good lecturer, and it turns out he knows his stuff when writing books to! Read more
Published on 17 May 2009 by Martin Court
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Education > Higher Education
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Engineering Physics
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Algebra
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Applied Mathematics
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Calculus & Mathematical Analysis > Vector & Tensor Analysis
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Education > Higher Education
- Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Mathematical
- Books > Science & Nature > Popular Science > Maths
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical > Mathematics > Calculus & Mathematical Analysis
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
