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Engineering mathematics

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Engineering mathematics is a branch of applied mathematics that concerns itself with mathematical methods and techniques that are typically used in engineering and industry. Along with fields like engineering economics, engineering physics, engineering management and engineering geology, engineering mathematics is an interdisciplinary subject motivated by engineers' needs for practical considerations outwith their specialization to be effective in their work.

Description

Historically, engineering mathematics consisted principally of applied analysis, most notably: differential equations; real and complex analysis; approximation theory (broadly construed, to include asymptotic, variational, and pertubative methods, representations, numerical analysis); and applied probability. These areas of mathematics were intimately tied to the development of Newtonian physics. This history left a legacy as well: until the early 20th century subjects such as classical mechanics were often taught in applied mathematics departments at American universities, and fluid mechanics may still be taught in (applied) mathematics as well as engineering departments.[1] Specialized branches include engineering optimization and engineering statistics.

The success of modern numerical computer methods and software has led to the emergence of computational mathematics, computational science, and computational engineering (the last two are sometimes lumped together and abbreviated as CS&E), which occasionally use high-performance computing for the simulation of phenomena and the solution of problems in the sciences and engineering. These are often considered interdisciplinary fields, but are also are of interest to engineering mathematics.

References

  1. ^ Stolz, M. (2002), "The History Of Applied Mathematics And The History Of Society" (PDF), Synthese, 133 (1): 43–57, doi:10.1023/A:1020823608217, retrieved 2009-07-07

See also

Dept. of Engineering Mathematics at Bristol University.

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