Burghes D. Applying Mathematics. A Course in Mathematical Modelling 1982

Textbook in PDF format

There have been many books written during the past decade on the topic of mathematical modelling; all these books have been devoted to explaining and developing mathematical models, but very little space has been given to how to construct mathematical models, that is, how to take a real problem and convert it into a mathematical one. Although we appreciate that we might not yet have the best methods for teaching how to tackle real problems, we do at least regard this mastery of model formulation as a crucial step, and much of this book is devoted to attempting to make you more proficient in this process.
Our basic concept is that applied mathematicians become better modellers through more and more experience of tackling real problems. So in order to get the most out of this book, we stress that you must make a positive effort to tackle the many problems posed before looking at the solutions we have given. To help you to gain confidence in the art of modelling we have divided the book into four distinct sections