Preface

MATLAB^® is a very popular language for technical computing used by students, engineers, and scientists in universities, research institutes, and industries all over the world. The software is popular because it is powerful and easy to use. For university freshmen in it can be thought of as the next tool to use after the graphic calculator in high school.

This book was written following several years of teaching the software to freshmen in an introductory engineering course. The objective was to write a book that teaches the software in a friendly, non-intimidating fashion. Therefore, the book is written in simple and direct language. In many places bullets, rather than lengthy text, are used to list facts and details that are related to a specific topic. The book includes numerous sample problems in mathematics, science, and engineering that are similar to problems encountered by new users of MATLAB.

This fifth edition of the book is updated to MATLAB Release 2013b. In addition, the end of chapter problems have been revised. In Chapters 1 through 8 close to 80% of the problems are new or different than in previous editions.

I would like to thank several of my colleagues at The Ohio State University. Professor Richard Freuler for his comments, and Dr. Mike Parke for reviewing sections of the book and suggested modifications. I also appreciate the involvement and support of Professors Robert Gustafson, John Demel and Dr. John Merrill from the Engineering Education Innovation Center at The Ohio State University. Special thanks go to Professor Mike Lichtensteiger (OSU), and my daughter Tal Gilat (Marquette University), who carefully reviewed the first edition of the book and provided valuable comments and criticisms. Professor Brian Harper (OSU) has made a significant contribution to the new end of chapter problems in the present edition.

I would like to express my appreciation to all those who have reviewed earlie editions of the text at its various stages of development, including Betty Barr, University of Houston; Andrei G. Chakhovskoi, University of California, Davis; Roger King, University of Toledo; Richard Kwor, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; Larry Lagerstrom, University of California, Davis; Yueh-Jaw Lin, University of Akron; H. David Sheets, Canisius College; Geb Thomas, University of Iowa; Brian Vick, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Jay Weitzen, University of Massachusetts, Lowell; and Jane Patterson Fife, The Ohio State University. In addition, I would like to acknowledge Daniel Sayre and Joyce Poh, all from John Wiley & Sons, who supported the production of the Fifth edition.

I hope that the book will be useful and will help the users of MATLAB to enjoy the software.

Amos Gilat
Columbus, Ohio
November, 2013
[email protected]