ABSTRACT
Numerical methods will play a more significant role in engineering science as
computer technology continues to improve. Methods that were previously
thought to be too effort consuming are now commercially available in a number
of software packages such as Mathematica1 (Wolfram Research, Inc.), MAPLE1 (Waterloo Maple, Inc.), or MATLAB1 (The Math Works, Inc.).
For example, finding the roots of an equation, involving several confluent
hypergeometric functions, can be done with a single Mathematica command. In this chapter, the notion will be to alert the reader to some of these
commercially available packages and identify which numerical methods are
applied. It is not the intention of this chapter to produce an exposition on
numerical analysis. However, it may be helpful to be aware of what kind of
results a particular method might yield and be able to make informed de-
cisions. To this end, the chapter will briefly review various methods and
highlight their central ideas to allow a user to be mindful of the methods’
virtues as well as their limitations.
