Description

For first-year or introductory Engineering courses

Best-selling author Delores Etter provides an up-to-date introduction to MATLAB. Using a consistent five-step problem-solving methodology, Etter describes the computational and visualization capabilities of MATLAB and illustrates the problem solving process through a variety of engineering examples and applications.

Teaching and Learning Experience

This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience–for you and your students. It will help:

• Customize your Course with ESource: Instructors can adopt this title as is, or use the ESource website to select the chapters they need, in the sequence they want.
• Present a Consistent Methodology for Solving Engineering Problems: Chapter 1 introduces a five-step process for solving engineering problems using the computer
• Describe the Exceptional Computational and Visualization Capabilities of MATLAB: Students will gain a clear understanding of how to use MATLAB.
• Illustrate the Problem-solving Process through a Variety of Engineering Examples and Applications: Numerous examples emphasize the creation of readable and simple solutions to develop and reinforce problem-solving skills.
• Keep your Course Current with Discussion of the Latest Technologies: The discussions, screen captures, examples, and problem solutions have been updated to reflect MATLAB Version 8.2, R2013b.

Features

Present a Consistent Methodology for Solving Engineering Problems

Chapter 1 introduces a five-step process for solving engineering problems using the computer:

1. State the problem clearly
2. Describe the input and output information
3. Work a simple example by hand
4. Develop an algorithm and convert it to MATLAB
5. Test the solution with a variety of data

Describe the Exceptional Computational and Visualization Capabilities of MATLAB

• Student Aids– Each chapter ends with a Summary that reviews the topics covered and includes a list of Key Terms. A MATLAB Summary lists all the special symbols, commands, and functions defined in the chapter. Hints are provided to help the student avoid some of the common errors.
• Visualization–Students will learn to generate plots in a variety of formats to use when analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating data. Students begin using plots with the first MATLAB program presented in Chapter 1 and continually expand plotting capabilities within the remaining chapters. Chapter 4 covers all the main types of plots and graphs.
• Software Engineering Concepts–Through MATLAB, users are able to write portable code that can be transferred from one computer platform to another. Additional topics that relate to software engineering issues are discussed in Chapter 1 and include the software life cycle, maintenance, and software prototypes.

Illustrate the Problem-solving Process through a Variety of Engineering Examples and Applications

• Numerous examples are provided that emphasize the creation of readable and simple solutions to develop and reinforce problem-solving skills. Each topic is presented with clear, straight-forward Problem Statements that explore practical examples.
• Each chapter is organized around a specific application drawn from a variety of engineering disciplines to demonstrate a particular MATLAB capability.
• Engineering Grand Challenges–real-world engineering and scientific examples and problems–are included at the beginning of each chapter. These unique activities include prediction of weather, climate, and global change; mapping of the human genome; and improvements in vehicle performance. The inclusion of examples related to each Grand Challenge links the chapters into one cohesive unit.
• Problem Sets–Each chapter ends with a set of problems. These are new problems that relate to a variety of engineering applications with the level of difficulty ranging from straight-forward to longer assignments. For many of the problems, engineering data sets are included to use in testing.

Keep your Course Current with Discussion of the Latest Technologies

• UPDATED: The discussions, screen captures, examples, and problem solutions have been updated to reflect MATLAB Version 8.2, R2013b.
• NEW: A discussion of the new Help browser is included along with screen captures to illustrate using this feature.
• UPDATED: The section on random number generation has been rewritten to reflect changes relative to the random number seed and to include the new function for generating random integers.
• UPDATED: The section on numerical integration has been rewritten to support the new integration function. This includes references using the function handles.
• UPDATED: Updated examples and discussion for current hardware and software are included throughout the text.

New to this Edition

Keep your Course Current with Discussion of the Latest Technologies

• The discussions, screen captures, examples, and problem solutions have been updated to reflect MATLAB Version 8.2, R2013b.
• A discussion of the new Help browser is included along with screen captures to illustrate using this feature.
• The section on random number generation has been rewritten to reflect changes relative to the random number seed and to include the new function for generating random integers.
• The section on numerical integration has been rewritten to support the new integration function. This includes references using the function handles.
• Updated examples and discussion for current hardware and software are included throughout the text.

Table of Contents

• 1 • AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING PROBLEM SOLVING
• 2 • GETTING STARTED WITH MATLAB
• 3 • MATLAB FUNCTIONS
• 4 • PLOTTING
• 5 • CONTROL STRUCTURES
• 6 • MATRIX COMPUTATIONS
• 7 • SYMBOLIC MATHEMATICS
• 8 • NUMERICAL TECHNIQUES
• INDEX