Mathematics for Materials Scientists and Engineers
MIT OpenCourseWare presents the mathematical toolkit behind materials science and engineering, built around the core courses 3.012 and 3.014. Topics include linear algebra and orthonormal bases, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, quadratic forms, tensor operations, and symmetry operations, followed by calculus of several variables, an introduction to complex analysis, ordinary and partial differential equations, theory of distributions, and Fourier analysis. Each concept is tied to a materials problem, such as describing crystal symmetry or modeling a material's response to an applied field, rather than taught in the abstract. Course materials include lecture notes and problem sets from MIT's OpenCourseWare archive, free to access, with no certificate offered. It suits students who already have a materials science background and need the math formalized for structure, mechanics, and physics of solids and soft matter.