Science used to be experiments and theory, now it is experiments, theory
and computations. The computational approach to understanding nature and
technology is currently flowering in many fields such as physics,
geophysics, astrophysics, chemistry, biology, and most engineering
disciplines. This book is a gentle introduction to such computational
methods where the techniques are explained through examples. It is our
goal to teach principles and ideas that carry over from field to field.
You will learn basic methods and how to implement them. In order to gain
the most from this text, you will need prior knowledge of calculus,
basic linear algebra and elementary programming.