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Monte Carlo methods are among the most used and useful computational tools available, providing efficient and practical algorithms to solve a wide range of scientific and engineering problems. This book provides a hands-on approach to learning this subject.

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Monte Carlo methods are among the most used and useful computational tools available today, providing efficient and practical algorithims to solve a wide range of scientific and engineering problems. Applications covered in this book include optimization, finance, statistical mechanics, birth and death processes, and gambling systems.

Explorations in Monte Carlo Methods provides a hands-on approach to learning this subject. Each new idea is carefully motivated by a realistic problem, thus leading from questions to theory via examples and numerical simulations. Programming exercises are integrated throughout the text as the primary vehicle for learning the material. Each chapter ends with a large collection of problems illustrating and directing the material. This book is suitable as a textbook for students of engineering and the sciences, as well as mathematics.

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to Monte Carlo Methods.- Some Probability Distributions and Their Uses.- Markov Chain Monte Carlo.- Optimization by Monte Carlo Methods.- Random Walks.

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From the reviews:

"Explorations in Monte Carlo Methods by Ronald Shonkwiler and Franklin Mendivil is an undergraduate text that is both practical and accessible. ... Explorations would make a good text book and would also be suitable for independent study. ... It gives numerous applications of Monte Carlo methods including applications in electrical engineering, finance, optimization, and statistical mechanics. Each chapter has numerous exercises and the book concludes with an appendix listing several ideas for student projects applying Monte Carlo methods." (John D. Cook, The Mathematical Association of America, October, 2009)

"This undergraduate text explores the world of Monte Carlo methods under two premises: it shall be algorithmically oriented, and the students shall have fun with the subject. ... At the end of each chapter there are ... references, and more importantly, a large number of problems ... . The problems are clearly pointed out, and hence it is really fun to follow the text. There are not many undergraduate texts on Monte Carlo methods; this is one to recommend for use in a classroom." (Peter Mathé, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2010 i)

"This clearly presented, easy-to-understand book offers beginners a hands-on approach to Monte Carlo methods (MCM). These extensively used methods offer valuable computational tools together with very useful, efficient, and practical algorithms for resolving difficult, complex problems confronting researchers/investigators in numerous disciplines. Shonkwiler (emer., Georgia Institute of Technology) and Mendivil (Acadia Univ., Canada) present the material in five chapters, each ending with a carefully selected list of problems. ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic libraries serving upper-division undergraduates; professionals/practitioners." (D. V. Chopra, Choice, Vol. 47 (7), March, 2010)

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