The Objectives of Chapter 1: Introduction
The primary objective of this chapter is to provide you with a concrete idea of what numerical analysis (numerical methods) are and how they relate to engineering and scientific problem solving. Also, it is to acquaint you with the major sources of errors involved in numerical methods.
Specific objectives and topics covered are
n Understanding how numerical analysis afford a means to generate solutions in manner that can be implemented on a digital computer.
n Learning how to quantify error.
n Learning how error estimates can be used to decide when to terminate an iterative calculation.
n Understanding how round-off errors occur because digital computers have a limited ability to represent numbers.
n Recognizing that truncation errors occur when exact mathematical formulations are represented by approximations.

