Introduction to Symmetry Analysis (With CD-ROM)

The author does not assume any level of mahematical knowledge or sophistication beyond standard mathematical course work required of engineering students. It may be of importance to know that Professor Cantwell uses this book to teach a course at an engineerng department.

What makes this book especially valuable is the Mathematica package included on the CD-ROM. The symmetry calculations are often very tedious and complex. Thereore, there is a strong need to automate at least some of the work. A beginner can simply use some of the sample notebooks provided by the author and understand the method. A researcher can start with any of those notebooks, replace the author's equations with the ones of interest, and follow through the steps of the procedure.

If you are going to buy only one book on this subject, this has to be it!


good introduction into dealing with nonlinear pde's   August 5, 2005
N. A. Beishuizen (Delft, Netherlands)
Like the introduction says: Symmetry methods based on Lie group theory is the most important method for solving nonlinear problems aside from numerical computations. Have you always wondered why you need a computer to solve something 'simple' like the nonlinear Burgers equation? Well, this book shows you how far you can go using pen and paper. It is a very good book, but I highly recommend studying it together with an Abstract Algebra book.


A decent introductory text on symmetries for fluid physicists and engineers   June 30, 2005
dhurandhar (Atlanta, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The book does a very good job of relating symmetry methods to fluid mechanics applications using physical interpretations of the results.

However, it lacks the clarity of algebra that the book by Bluman and Kumei offers. Also, author misses out on citing certain important contributions to symmetry methods by other workers (identities are protected to avoid animosity).