¿The author describes this marvelous book as designed for beginning graduate students in mathematics¿-in particular for those who intend to specialize in applied mathematics, and for graduate students in other disciplines such as engineering, physics and computer science. The first six chapters contain enough material for a year course, and the final two chapters contain related material¿ Those who are familiar with the author¿s earlier books will not be surprised by its excellence. It is businesslike and will be found to be demanding, but it is user-friendly. It is the reviewer¿s opinion that it will be extremely useful and popular as a text; institutions that do not already require their students to take such a course no longer have an excuse, and should immediately organize one based on this book.¿ ¿Mathematical Reviews

This well-written book contains the analytical tools, concepts, and viewpoints needed for modern applied mathematics. It treats various practical methods for solving problems such as differential equations, boundary value problems, and integral equations. Pragmatic approaches to difficult equations are presented, including the Galerkin method, the method of iteration, Newton 's method, projection techniques, and homotopy methods.

This textbook is designed for graduate students in mathematics, physics, engineering, and computer science. Its purpose is to guide the reader in exploring contemporary approximation theory. The emphasis is on multi-variable approximation theory, i.e., the approximation of functions in several variables, as opposed to the classical theory of functions in one variable. Most of the topics in the book, heretofore accessible only through research papers, are treated here from the basics to the currently active research, often motivated by practical problems arising in diverse applications such as science, engineering, geophysics, and business and economics. Among these topics are projections, interpolation paradigms, positive definite functions, interpolation theorems of Schoenberg and Micchelli, tomography, artificial neural networks, wavelets, thin-plate splines, box splines, ridge functions, and convolutions. An important and valuable feature of the book is the bibliography of almost 600 items directing the reader to important books and research papers. There are 438 problems and exercises scattered through the book allowing the student reader to get a better understanding of the subject.

Contains fully worked-out solutions to all of the odd-numbered exercises in the text, giving students a way to check their answers and ensure that they took the correct steps to arrive at an answer.