[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=4048
Quoting:
Explorations of phenomena such as transitions to chaos, nonlinear
resonances, and resonance overlap to help the student to develop
appropriate analytic tools for understanding. Computational
algorithms communicate methods used in the analysis of dynamical
phenomena. Expressing the methods of mechanics in a computer language
forces them to be unambiguous and computationally effective.
Uh, huh. Unambiguous and computationally effective?
So, does 1/10 == .1?
Oops. So much for unambiguous. And it just gets worse from there.
Now, to be fair, if the book really deals with non-linear mechanics,
then computer simulation is a pretty good way to go as *all* of our
non-linear analysis methods are approximate. However, that's a far cry
from "precise and unambiguous".
However, if the book attacks everything by means of Hamiltonians, it is
*FAR* from being a beginner level book.
-a
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