Acknowledgments. Several members of the McGraw-Hill team have contributed to
this project. Special thanks are due to Lorraine Buczek, and Bill Stenquist, and Melissa
Leick for their encouragement, support, and direction. Ruma Khurana of MPS Limited, a
Macmillan Company also did an outstanding job in the book’s final production phase. Last,
but not least, Beatrice Sussman once again demonstrated why she is the best copyeditor in
the business.
During the course of this project, the folks at The MathWorks, Inc., have truly demon-
strated their overall excellence as well as their strong commitment to engineering and
science education. In particular, Courtney Esposito and Naomi Fernandes of The Math-
Works, Inc., Book Program have been especially helpful.
The generosity of the Berger family, and in particular Fred Berger, has provided me
with the opportunity to work on creative projects such as this book dealing with computing
and engineering. In addition, my colleagues in the School of Engineering at Tufts, notably
Masoud Sanayei, Lew Edgers, Vince Manno, Luis Dorfmann, Rob White, Linda Abriola,
and Laurie Baise, have been very supportive and helpful.
Significant suggestions were also given by a number of colleagues. In particular, Dave
Clough (University of Colorado–Boulder), and Mike Gustafson (Duke University) pro-
vided valuable ideas and suggestions. In addition, a number of reviewers provided useful
feedback and advice including Karen Dow Ambtman (University of Alberta), Jalal Behzadi
(Shahid Chamran University), Eric Cochran (Iowa State University), Frederic Gibou (Uni-
versity of California at Santa Barbara), Jane Grande-Allen (Rice University), Raphael
Haftka (University of Florida), Scott Hendricks (Virginia Tech University), Ming Huang
(University of San Diego), Oleg Igoshin (Rice University), David Jack (Baylor Univer-
sity), Clare McCabe (Vanderbilt University), Eckart Meiburg (University of California at
Santa Barbara), Luis Ricardez (University of Waterloo), James Rottman (University of
California, San Diego), Bingjing Su (University of Cincinnati), Chin-An Tan (Wayne State
University), Joseph Tipton (The University of Evansville), Marion W. Vance (Arizona
State University), Jonathan Vande Geest (University of Arizona), and Leah J. Walker
(Arkansas State University).
It should be stressed that although I received useful advice from the aforementioned
individuals, I am responsible for any inaccuracies or mistakes you may find in this book.
Please contact me via e-mail if you should detect any errors.
Finally, I want to thank my family, and in particular my wife, Cynthia, for the love,
patience, and support they have provided through the time I’ve spent on this project.
Steven C. Chapra
Tufts University
Medford, Massachusetts
steven.chapra@tufts.edu
xvi PREFACE
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