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Winzer
May26-10, 12:30 AM
I am looking at getting into numerics. This will be mostly aimed at computation in physics.
What texts would recommend that are numeric classics? Also a list of texts from in terms of how advanced they are would be great.

My Math background: Calc 1-3, Linear Alg, Diff Eq, Math Phys., Complex Variables, PDEs, and Intro to
Scientific Computing. Soon to come Grad Math Phys and Analysis.

Thank you.

jasonRF
May27-10, 05:44 AM
Computation in physics can mean a lot of things. But a very nice book is Numerical Recipes, which was written by physicists. It can be a little light on description/analysis in places, but the choice of topics is superb and has generous lists of references. Chances are, whatever you are interested in doing, it discusses to some degree and can point you to more details. 2nd edition is really good - 3rd editio nhas a few new topics and is object oriented I think.

There are many more standard numerical analysis textbooks. A good intro book would be by Burden and Faires, which is a reasonable blend of analysis and algorithm descriptions. As always, used copies of old editions are usually the best bet.

good luck,

jason