This book is the first volume of a two-volume text on mathematics for
engineering students in universities and polytechnics, for use in the
second and subsequent years of a first degree course. The text is
primadly designed to assist engineedng undergraduates and their
teachers, but we hope it may also prove of value to students of other
disciplines that employ mathematics as a tool, to mathematicians who are
interested in applications of their subject, and as a reference book for
practising engineers and others. Volume J covers mathematical topics
which most engineedng students are required to study; Volume 2 deals
with more advanced subjects which are often available as options in the
later stages of an undergraduate course. The text is based on courses in
mathematics given by the authors to the engineedng students of the
University of Nottingham. These courses have evolved over the last
sixteen years, and have been developed in close consultation with our
fellow teachers in the engineering departments of the University. In
preparing the text, we have kept in mind the constraints imposed by the
normal three or four year undergraduate course, and we believe that the
choice of matedal in the two volumes is realistic in that respect. For
completeness, some topics are pursued a little further than an
engineedng mathematics lecture course would normally take them, but all
the material and examples should be within the grasp of a competent
engineering undergraduate student.