Product Description

This is the revised and expanded second edition of the hugely popular Numerical Recipes: the Art of Scientific Computing. The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry, Numerical Recipes is a complete text and reference book on scientific computing. In a self-contained manner, it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual, practical computer routines. With over 100 new routines, bringing the total to well over 300, plus upgraded versions of many of the original routines, this new edition is the most practical, comprehensive handbook of scientific computing available today. The book retains the informal, easy-to-read style that made the first edition so popular, even while introducing some more advanced topics. It is an ideal textbook for scientists and engineers, and an indispensable reference for anyone who works in scientific computing. The second edition is available in FORTRAN, the quintessential language for numerical calculations, and in the increasingly popular C language. Not simply a line-by-line translation of the FORTRAN routines, the C version takes advantage of many unique features of the C language, including dynamic memory allocation, modularization, pointer reference to matrices, structured programming, and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #271376 in Books
• Published on: 1992-10-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 994 pages

Review
'If you are a programmer you need it. If you have someone to write programs for you, buy it as a birthday present.' Spectroscopy Europe

Review
‘If you are a programmer you need it. If you have someone to write programs for you, buy it as a birthday present.’ Spectroscopy Europe

Synopsis
This is the revised and expanded second edition of the hugely popular Numerical Recipes: the Art of Scientific Computing. The product of a unique collaboration among four leading scientists in academic research and industry, Numerical Recipes is a complete text and reference book on scientific computing. In a self-contained manner, it proceeds from mathematical and theoretical considerations to actual, practical computer routines. With over 100 new routines, bringing the total to well over 300, plus upgraded versions of many of the original routines, this new edition is the most practical, comprehensive handbook of scientific computing available today. The book retains the informal, easy-to-read style that made the first edition so popular, even while introducing some more advanced topics. It is an ideal textbook for scientists and engineers, and an indispensable reference for anyone who works in scientific computing. The second edition is available in FORTRAN, the quintessential language for numerical calculations, and in the increasingly popular C language.

Not simply a line-by-line translation of the FORTRAN routines, the C version takes advantage of many unique features of the C language, including dynamic memory allocation, modularization, pointer reference to matrices, structured programming, and much more.

Customer Reviews

Invaluable resource for scietists
Whether it's numerical algorithms or statistics, this book has most of them that I've needed to use in my work. Some of the comments by other reviewers are fair. Yes, the code is slow and a bit ugly. But for me, this book's merit is in presenting the theory behind the algorithms, whether it's 2-dimensional FFT or chi-square fit. Don't use the code. It's slow and inaccurate. Mike Hobson (also author of "Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering") recommended GAMS or Netlib off the web or LAPACK and I agree. But you have to know the theory (and which algorithm to use) first and that's what this book is great for.

Comprehensive but lacking in substance
Some years ago when I was looking for computer codes to solve a system of linear algebraic equations, I thought "Numerical Recipes" was good. I got the codes I wanted. I was quite impressed. However, as more years went by, my research work encountered more "difficult" systems (such as those ill-conditioned ones) which stressed the codes to the limit. I started to pore over the details in the book. That was when I discovered that the book lacks substance. I found that the techniques suggested for treating the "difficult systems" more than often do not work and are sometimes described using rather tentative language. I would liken the book to a recipe for fast food, like instant noodle perhaps, but not to nutritious home cooked meals. If you are hungry and need something fast, maybe go for it. Otherwise, if you need something more substantial, look elsewhere for a smaller but well written book covering the relevant area.

Indispensable
Every chapter is a concise, readable and informative introduction to, and overview of, a field of numerical computing. If you need to use numerical methods, without being an expert on them, 'Numerical Recipes' acts as an unusually helpful tutor. The concepts are well explained in a way that makes clear the motivation, the strengths and the potential weaknesses of each method. It helps that the authors offer opinions and experience as well as mathematics. The structure of the book is good - it is easy to find the chapter you want, and easy to read each chapter, or section, without having to cross-reference other sections (I hate it when textbooks do that). I often read this book to choose my method, then use another subroutine library for implementation.