Numerical Methods for Engineers

. The revision retains the successful pedagogy of the prior editions. Chapra and Canale's unique approach opens each part of the text with sections called Motivation, Mathematical Background, and Orientation, preparing the student for what is to come in a motivating and engaging manner. Each part closes with an Epilogue containing sections called Trade-Offs, Important Relationships and Formulas, and Advanced Methods and Additional References. Much more than a summary, the Epilogue deepens understanding of what has been learned and provides a peek into more advanced methods. Users will find use of software packages, specifically MATLAB and Excel with VBA. This includes material on developing MATLAB m-files and VBA macros. .

. Approximately 80% of the problems are new or revised for this edition. The expanded breadth of engineering disciplines covered is especially evident in the problems, which now cover such areas as biotechnology and biomedical engineering. . . .

I like this book because of its approach to learning: each part contains Motivation, Mathematical Background and Orientation, then the numerical methods and finally an Epilogue.

Also, the number and variety of the problems presented contribute to accomplish our educational objectives, and the emphasis made on the growing use of software packages (MATLAB, Excel, Mathcad and IMSL) makes this book more useful for students and instructors.

This is an extensive book (more than 900 pages) and perhaps some parts of it must be omitted during a normal course (4 months, 4 hours per week in our case).

I think that the book price of the English edition (Hardcover) is high. Fortunately for our students, there is a cheaper Spanish version, although the translation is not very good (not in the technical sense but in writing and style).

In conclusion, I recommend the book to students and instructors as a comprehensive, learning oriented text with many problems in several engineering areas, and emphasis on the use of software packages, suitable to be used as textbook of numerical methods with extensive use of software.


Absolutely marvelous   August 9, 2002
Assela Pathirana (Japan)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

The strongest point in favor of this book is the fact that authors seems to have taken an effort to see the problems from students viewpoint: i.e. from a viewpoint of a person who does not know Numerical Methods and want to learn them without facing unnecessary complications. Topics are comprehensive and clear. Excellent resource for students at undergraduate or graduate level. No wonder it won ASEE Meriam/Wiley award. Highly recommended. (NOTE: As with the case with many textbook readers, I did not read the book cover-to-cover. The review is based on a few sections that I read. )


Great book for self-study   August 22, 2001
Kurt Z (Cambridge, MA USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

I'm not an engineer. I majored in economics at MIT, and over the past few years have worked as an economic analyst. Recently, I needed to learn and review some numerical techniques in a short time frame. One of my co-workers suggested this book. In contrast to many other numerical methods texts, it is very clearly written and has lots of examples. I used the book to quickly learn about topics like cubic splines and solving partial differential equations. The author obviously cares about efficiently communicating concepts to students.


price is high   April 19, 1999
20 out of 26 found this review helpful

this book is $55 on barnes and noble book store and is $67 on border bookstore. your price is too high


Numerical Methods made easy   February 11, 2006
Andreas O. Schwarzinger (Lake Mary, Florida)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I bought this book a little while ago to get more familiar with interpolation which I need to use in some of the signal analysis software that I write. As I was reading through the book I suddenly realized the overall usefulness of numerical methods in general. It has helped me code up routines for solving matrices and interpolation algorithms. After reading this book I really can not understand how courses in linear algebra and differential equations can be taught without extensive use of numerical methods.

This book has really opened my eyes to a whole new way of solving engineering problems.

Andy (andys@d2d.com)