ABSTRACT
This Introduction contains a brief description ofthe objectives, approach, and organization of the book. The philosophy behind the Examples, Programs, and Problems is discussed. Several years' experience with the first edition of the book has identified several simple, but significant, concepts which are relevant throughout the book, but the place to include them is not clear. These concepts, which are presented in this Introduction, include the definitions of significant digits, precision, accuracy, and errors, and a discussion of number representation. A brief description of software packages and libraries is presented. Last, the Taylor series and the Taylor polynomial, which are indispensable in developing and understanding many numerical algorithms, are presented and discussed.
