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Numerical Math: Back to the Basics
This semester, one of the courses I took at the University of Tennessee as part of my doctoral study was entitled “Numerical Mathematics 1.” The main reason I took this course was to complement the more pure math-oriented courses I took last year, including real and complex analysis, and differential geometry. In other words I wanted to develop some awareness of where mathematical tools might be used outside of just pure mathematics, and as I like to say it, “develop range.” There are also some practical things to keep in mind: I can count the course credits towards my PhD program’s course requirements, and developing computational skills may make my job search near graduation much easier. As a bonus, the instructor for the course happened to be one of the professors co-advising my research project at the university.
I’m going to use this opportunity to talk about what I learned from this course, both the expected and the unexpected. There were also some extra benefits to taking the course not directly related to what content was covered. These are all things to keep in mind when diving into any math class, not just one that is considered “applied” math.
Course Content
The content of the course was based around a textbook in prepration, co-authored by the instructor of the course (Abner Salgdo) and another faculty member at the…