http://imechanica.org/node/2431 Comments for "Complex analysis on Wikipedia" en http://imechanica.org/node/2431 <p> I&#39;m teaching Applied Mathematics 105a this semester.&nbsp; The main content of the course is complex analysis.&nbsp; The course is taken mainly by undergraduate students in Engineering, Physics, and Applied Mathematics.&nbsp;&nbsp;There are&nbsp;about 70 people in the class, which&nbsp;makes it&nbsp;the largest class I have taught in the last 10 years. I have never taught a course on complex analysis before, but&nbsp;have used complex analysis in my research, and&nbsp;have taught the method of complex variables in my <a href="http://imechanica.org/node/725">graduate course on elasticity</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.seas.harvard.edu/brenner/Home.html">Michael Brenner</a>, the Director of Undergraduate Study of the Applied Mathematics Program, introduced me to the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Analysis-Applications-Engineering-Mathematics/dp/0139078746/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1197138438&amp;sr=1-2">textbook by Saff and Snider</a>.&nbsp; The book costs $125.80, and gets a 4-star review on Amazon.&nbsp; The book is not great, but writing a&nbsp;textbook to please a lot of people must be a difficult thing to do.&nbsp; Besides, I don&#39;t know any better alternative, and&nbsp;am reluctant to spend time to write my own notes on the subject.&nbsp; </p> <p> Today, I looked at several articles related to complex analysis in Wikipedia.&nbsp;&nbsp;While these articles&nbsp;may not replace the textbook, they are well&nbsp;written, and can serve as excellent supplementary readings.&nbsp; In particular, various hyperlinks may give better impression of the relations among topics.&nbsp; Here is a list of article:&nbsp; </p> <ul> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_numbers">Complex number</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_analysis">Function of a complex variable</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy_integral_theorem">Cauchy integral theorem</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauchy%27s_integral_formula">Cauchy&#39;s integral formula</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_series">Taylor series</a> (Intended for a real variable) </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurent_series">Laurent series</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_contour_integration">Contour integration</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_mapping">Conformal mapping</a>&nbsp;(This article is disappointing.) </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series">Fourier series</a> (This article is much better than the section in Saff and Snider) </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform">Fourier transform</a> </li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace_transform">Laplace transform</a></li> </ul> <p> <a href="http://imechanica.org/user/5">Daniel Suo</a> pointed out to me a <a href="http://exampleproblems.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page">wiki</a> that provides problems and solutions for many math courses.&nbsp; </p> <p> I&#39;d be curious to learn how students feel about the book by Saff and Snider.&nbsp; Have you found anything useful on complex analysis online?&nbsp; Does the cost of the book bother you, given so much is freely available online? </p> <br class="clear" /> http://imechanica.org/node/2431#comments education AM 105a complex analysis complex number Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:14:44 -0500 Zhigang Suo 2431 at http://imechanica.org