Foundation Mathematics for the Physical Sciences

K. F. Riley, M. P. Hobson

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780521192736
• eBook ISBN:
  9780511911248
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Mathematical & Computational Physics

This tutorial-style textbook develops the basic mathematical tools needed by first and second year undergraduates to solve problems in the physical sciences. Students gain hands-on experience through hundreds of worked examples, self-test questions and homework problems. Each chapter includes a summary of the main results, definitions and formulae. Over 270 worked examples show how to put the tools into practice. Around 170 self-test questions in the footnotes and 300 end-of-section exercises give students an instant check of their understanding. More than 450 end-of-chapter problems allow students to put what they have just learned into practice. Hints and outline answers to the odd-numbered problems are given at the end of each chapter. Complete solutions to these problems can be found in the accompanying Student Solutions Manual. Fully-worked solutions to all problems, password-protected for instructors, are available at www.cambridge.org/foundation.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Arithmetic and geometry
• 2 Preliminary algebra
• 3 Differential calculus
• 4 Integral calculus
• 5 Complex numbers and hyperbolic functions
• 6 Series and limits
• 7 Partial differentiation
• 8 Multiple integrals
• 9 Vector algebra
• 10 Matrices and vector spaces
• 11 Vector calculus
• 12 Line, surface and volume integrals
• 13 Laplace transforms
• 14 Ordinary differential equations
• 15 Elementary probability
• A The base for natural logarithms
• B Sinusoidal definitions
• C Leibnitz’s theorem
• D Summation convention
• E Physical constants
• F Footnote answers
• Index