Dear Bill:
I too am appalled at the abandonment of a solid numerical analysis
course in engineering education. Consider the common problem of solving a
set of linear, independent algebraic equations. Students have to be shown
that Cramer's rule will not work when using the (inevitable) finite
resolution of a computer or calculator. Of course, some of the time
Cramer's rule does work so it is important to teach students why it does not
work in general.
This is relevant to antennas where we routinely need to solve large sets
of equations. When using a computer to perform calculations, one needs to
think differently about methods than in the day when one needed to use large
sheets of paper and a pen.
If one is to use numbers, one needs to know the limitations of methods
of use.
73 Mac N8TT

--
J. Mc Laughlin; Michigan U.S.A.
Home:
"Bill Ogden" wrote in message
...
Back in the dark ages, when I was in school, we were "encouraged" to take
a
numerical analysis course if we were interested in computers. (I was an
EE
major.) It was not an easy topic, but it made us well aware of the
difference between correct results and computational precision. I was
recently astonished to find that most computer science students have no
concept of this area and even less interest in it.


snip

Bill
W2WO

This doesn't really matter anymore in the U.S. but it is important that
other countries do not abandon it.We do not rely on home grown engineers
as we have in the past since a
simple telephone call offshore
meets our economic needs.
Art
"J. Mc Laughlin" wrote in message
...
Dear Bill:
I too am appalled at the abandonment of a solid numerical analysis
course in engineering education. Consider the common problem of solving a
set of linear, independent algebraic equations. Students have to be shown
that Cramer's rule will not work when using the (inevitable) finite
resolution of a computer or calculator. Of course, some of the time
Cramer's rule does work so it is important to teach students why it does
not
work in general.
This is relevant to antennas where we routinely need to solve large
sets
of equations. When using a computer to perform calculations, one needs to
think differently about methods than in the day when one needed to use
large
sheets of paper and a pen.
If one is to use numbers, one needs to know the limitations of methods
of use.
73 Mac N8TT

--
J. Mc Laughlin; Michigan U.S.A.
Home:
"Bill Ogden" wrote in message
...
Back in the dark ages, when I was in school, we were "encouraged" to take
a
numerical analysis course if we were interested in computers. (I was an
EE
major.) It was not an easy topic, but it made us well aware of the
difference between correct results and computational precision. I was
recently astonished to find that most computer science students have no
concept of this area and even less interest in it.


snip

Bill
W2WO

"J. Mc Laughlin" wrote in message
...
I too am appalled at the abandonment of a solid numerical analysis
course in engineering education. Consider the common problem of solving a
set of linear, independent algebraic equations. Students have to be shown
that Cramer's rule will not work when using the (inevitable) finite
resolution of a computer or calculator.

I was never shown that, but I do remember it being drilled into our heads that
Cramer's rule was the bogosort of linear system solving -- just about the
least efficient means you could possibly choose, and that it existed primarily
because it can be useful to have a closed form solution to a system of
equations.

Numeric analysis of linear systems is an incredibly in-depth topic, as far as
I can tell. Books such as SIAM's "Numerical Linear Algebra" spends hundreds
of pages going over it all.

---Joel