Math 4250 / CS 4210, Links

Please check this page periodically --
new links might be added as we cover relevant material.

A brief history of numerical analysis.

Disasters caused by numerical errors
A very informative site describing occasions when numerical errors led to devastating situations.

Matlab Primer (pdf) for version 4.
(The described fundamentals are the same in later versions as well.)

Notes on IEEE Floating Point Arithmetic, by Prof. W. Kahan.

Other notes on arithmetic, error analysis, etc. by Prof. W. Kahan.

Java and numerical analysis.

A Java-Interval Calculator A handy toy to check your understanding of interval arithmetic.

Interval Arithmetic FAQ A nice site with questions and answers about interval arithmetic. Many of the answers include pointers to more detailed web sites.

A Guide to Available Mathematical Software is a project of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is a virtual repository of reusable/modular software for scientists and engineers. Note that both proprietary and shared-code libraries can be found through this site.

The NetLib Repository is a collection of mathematical software, documents/manuals, performance benchamrks, conference announcements, etc. Includes many robust/reliable software libraries written by proffessional numerical analysts. For example, modern versions of Matlab internally use numerical methods from LAPACK and, according to Cleve Moler, the first version of Matlab was just "an interactive calculator built on top of LINPACK and EISPACK, which were then state-of-the-art Fortran subroutine libraries for matrix computation". All three of these libraries (and much, much more!) can be found at NetLib. This is one of the first resources to search, if you need to solve some standard numerical subproblem within your application-specific program.