The example problems that use an ordinary differential equation (ODE) solver are referred to as "living example problems" because the students can load the program directly on their own computers in order to study it. Students are then encouraged to "play" with the example's key variables and assumptions. Students can change parameter values, such as the reaction rate constants, to learn to deduce trends or predict the behavior of a given reaction system, and gain a better understanding of the concepts being studied. Using the living example problems provides students with the opportunity to practice critical and creative thinking skills as they explore the problem and ask "what if...?" questions.
Most of the Living Example Problems use the differential equation solver or the nonlinear euation solver in Polymath™. POLYMATH is a user-friendly interactive numerical analysis package that is available for educational and professional use. It is widely used by many colleges and universities in the United States and throughout the worldwide. For more information visit The Polymath code to solve the examples from the book are included on the CD-ROM and ordered by chapter in the html\living directory. You can load these files in Polymath™ and edit the equations to see the effect of the changes in the code on the results.
A few of the Living Example Problems use COMSOL Multiphysics™. COMSOL Multiphysics™ is a software for Finite Element Modeling that can model and simulate physical processes that are described with differential equations. The makers of COMSOL Multiphysics™, COMSOL Group, provide software solutions for multiphysics modeling. As with Polymath™, we have included the codes necessary to solve the COMSOL Multiphysics™ examples from the text. You can modify these files to see the relationship between the equation parameters and the results.
You can browse to the Living Example Problems of the chapter you want by clicking the corresponding link below:
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