Differential Equations, Mechanics, and Computation

This title is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students interested in ordinary differential equations and numerical methods. This book provides a conceptual introduction to the theory of ordinary differential equations, concentrating on the initial value problem for equations of evolution and with applications to the calculus of variations and classical mechanics, along with a discussion of chaos theory and ecological models. It has a careful introduction to the theory of numerical methods with an unusual treatment of the analysis of errors and stability of various numerical solution algorithms. While the book would be suitable as a textbook for an undergraduate or elementary graduate course in ordinary differential equations, the authors have designed the text also to be useful for motivated students wishing to learn the material on their own or desiring to supplement an ODE textbook being used in a course they are taking with a text offering a more conceptual approach to the subject.