In Math Toolkit for Real-Time Programming , author Jack Crenshaw explains in detail the fundamental mathematical functions including square root, trigonometric functions, logarithms and exponentials. He teaches you how to calculate them in the most efficient ways with your computer, using algorithms from first principles. The author gives alternative approaches, explores the advantages of each, and ends each discussion with practical, robust and efficient software.

You get an extremely clear explanation of calculus. If you never really understood calculus before, you will after reading this explanation. Starting from first principles of areas and slopes, Crenshaw covers both analytic and numerical calculus. He turns the principles of analytical calculus into fast, accurate and practical numerical methods for all occasions. The author leads you from the simplest numerical methods to the best and most accurate in existence, carefully explaining each step along the way. Learn single-step and multi-step methods, difference methods, Runge-Kutta integration and z-transforms. Convert formulas from the continuous-time to discrete-time domains, and back again.

466 pages, softcover, CD-ROM included

About the Author

Jack Crenshaw holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Auburn University (specialties in mathematics, electronics, and advanced dynamics). He wrote his first computer program in 1956 and his first microcomputer software -- a real-time, floating-point, Kalman filter-driven controller -- in 1976. He has been working with real-time software for embedded systems ever since. He is currently a Senior Principal Design Engineer for Alliant TechSystems, Inc., a contributing editor for Embedded Systems Programming magazine, and author of the popular "Programmer's Toolbox" column. In his spare time he likes to dabble in compiler theory, guidance and control theory, and help rehabilitate orphaned and injured wildlife.