Quarteroni A., Gervasio P. A Primer on Mathematical Modelling

Springer, 2020. — 244 p. — (UNITEXT 121). — ISBN: 978-3-030-44541-6.In this book we describe the magic world of mathematical models: starting from real-life problems, we formulate them in terms of equations, transform equations into algorithms and algorithms into programs to be executed on computers.
A broad variety of examples and exercises illustrate that properly designed models can, e.g.: predict the way the number of dolphins in the Aeolian Sea will change as food availability and fishing activity vary; describe the blood flow in a capillary network; calculate the PageRank of websites.
This book also includes a chapter with an elementary introduction to Octave, an open-source programming language widely used in the scientific community. Octave functions and scripts for dealing with the problems presented in the text can be downloaded from https://paola-gervasio.unibs.it/quarteroni-gervasio
This book is addressed to any student interested in learning how to construct and apply mathematical models.A Warm-Up to Models
Getting Started
Reckoning with the Computer
A Virtual Surfer for the Web
A Network of Capillaries
Predators and Preys in the Maths Ocean
Take-Home Message
Solutions to Exercises