John Bird - Birds Higher Engineering Mathematics

Why is knowledge of mathematics important in engineering?

A career in any engineering or scientific field will require both basic and advanced mathematics. Without mathematics to determine principles, calculate dimensions and limits, explore variations, prove concepts and so on, there would be no mobile telephones, televisions, stereo systems, video games, microwave ovens, computers or virtually anything electronic. There would be no bridges, tunnels, roads, skyscrapers, automobiles, ships, planes, rockets or most things mechanical. There would be no metals beyond the common ones, such as iron and copper, no plastics, no synthetics. In fact, society would most certainly be less advanced without the use of mathematics throughout the centuries and into the future.

Electrical engineers require mathematics to design, develop, test or supervise the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment, components or systems for commercial, industrial, military or scientific use.

Mechanical engineers require mathematics to perform engineering duties in planning and designing tools, engines, machines and other mechanically functioning equipment; they oversee installation, operation, maintenance and repair of such equipment as centralised heat, gas, water and steam systems.

Aerospace engineers require mathematics to perform a variety of engineering work in designing, constructing and testing aircraft, missiles and spacecraft; they conduct basic and applied research to evaluate adaptability of materials and equipment to aircraft design and manufacture and recommend improvements in testing equipment and techniques.

Nuclear engineers require mathematics to conduct research on nuclear engineering problems or apply principles and theory of nuclear science to problems concerned with release, control and utilisation of nuclear energy and nuclear waste disposal.

Petroleum engineers require mathematics to devise methods to improve oil and gas well production and determine the need for new or modified tool designs; they oversee drilling and offer technical advice to achieve economical and satisfactory progress.

Industrial engineers require mathematics to design, develop, test and evaluate integrated systems for managing industrial production processes, including human work factors, quality control, inventory control, logistics and material flow, cost analysis and production co-ordination.

Environmental engineers require mathematics to design, plan or perform engineering duties in the prevention, control and remediation of environmental health hazards, using various engineering disciplines; their work may include waste treatment, site remediation or pollution control technology.

Civil engineers require mathematics in all levels in civil engineering structural engineering, hydraulics and geotechnical engineering are all fields that employ mathematical tools such as differential equations, tensor analysis, field theory, numerical methods and operations research.

Knowledge of mathematics is therefore needed by each of the engineering disciplines listed above.

It is intended that this text Bird's Higher Engineering Mathematicswill provide a step-by-step approach to learning the essential mathematics needed for your engineering studies.

Now in its ninth edition, Bird's Higher Engineering Mathematicshas helped thousands of students to succeed in their exams. Mathematical theories are explained in a straightforward manner, supported by practical engineering examples and applications to ensure that readers can relate theory to practice. Some 1,200 engineering situations/problems have been flagged-up to help demonstrate that engineering cannot be fully understood without a good knowledge of mathematics.

The extensive and thorough topic coverage makes this an ideal text for undergraduate degree courses, foundation degrees, and for higher-level vocational courses such as Higher National Certificate and Diploma courses in engineering disciplines.

Its companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/birdprovides resources for both students and lecturers, including full solutions for all 2,100 further questions, lists of essential formulae, multiple-choice tests, and illustrations, as well as full solutions to revision tests for course instructors.

John Bird, BSc (Hons), CEng, CMath, CSci, FIMA, FIET, FCollT, is the former Head of Applied Electronics in the Faculty of Technology at Highbury College, Portsmouth, UK. More recently, he has combined freelance lecturing at the University of Portsmouth, with Examiner responsibilities for Advanced Mathematics with City and Guilds and examining for the International Baccalaureate Organisation. He has over 45 years experience of successfully teaching, lecturing, instructing, training, educating and planning trainee engineers study programmes. He is the author of 146 textbooks on engineering, science and mathematical subjects, with worldwide sales of over one million copies. He is a chartered engineer, a chartered mathematician, a chartered scientist and a Fellow of three professional institutions. He has recently retired from lecturing at the Royal Navy's Defence College of Marine Engineering in the Defence College of Technical Training at H.M.S. Sultan, Gosport, Hampshire, UK, one of the largest engineering training establishments in Europe.