Quantitative Methods Of Data Analysis For The Physical Sciences And Engineering Douglas G Martinson by Douglas G. Martinson 9781107029767, 1107029767 instant download after payment.

This book is the outcome of a one-semester graduate class taught in the Department of
Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University, although the book could be
used over two or even three semesters, if desired. I have taught this class since 1985,
having taken over from a departing marine seismologist who had taught the course as
one on Fourier analysis, the only topic that computers of the day were capable of
performing, because of the development of the Fast Fourier Transform. However, at
that time computers were rapidly becoming powerful enough to allow application of
methods requiring more power and memory. New methods were sprouting yearly, and
as the computers grew faster, previously sluggish methodologies were becoming
realizable. At the time I started teaching the course, there were no textbooks (none!)
that gave a thorough introduction to the primary methods. Numerical Recipes –
published in the early 1980s – did present a brief overview and the computer code
necessary to run nearly every method, and it was a godsend. It occurred to me that my
class notes should be converted to a book to fill this void. Over the last 30 years many
other books have been published, but in my opinion there is still a need for an
introductory-level book that spans a broad number of the most useful techniques.
Regardless of its introductory nature, I have tried to give the reader a complete enough
understanding to allow him or her to properly apply the methods while avoiding
common pitfalls and misunderstandings.
I try to present the methods following a few fundamental themes: e.g., Principle of
Maximum Likelihood for deriving optimal methods, and Expectancy for estimating
uncertainty. I hope this makes these important themes better understood and the material
easier to grasp.