This book provides a concise and well balanced overview of the functionality in MATLAB®. It facilitates independent learning with coverage of both the fundamentals and applications in two parts. The essentials of MATLAB are illustrated throughout with many examples from a wide range of familiar scientific and engineering areas, as well as from everyday life. This is an ideal textbook for a first course on MATLAB or an engineering problem solving course using MATLAB, as well as a self-learning tutorial for professionals and students who are expected to learn and apply MATLAB themselves. New to this edition; Updated with the features of the latest MATLAB release Expanded discussion of writing functions and scripts Additional coverage of formatted output, including more discussion on fprintf More exercises and examples throughout New chapters on Symbolic Math and SIMULINK® toolboxes Companion website for the reader, providing M-files used within the book and selected solutions to end of chapter problems. Visit store.elsevier.com and search on "Essential Matlab" About the Authors; Brian Hahn was a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town. He received a PhD from University of Cambridge. In his career Brian wrote more than 10 books to teach programming languages to beginners. Daniel Valentine is an Associate professor of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at Clarkson University. He is Affiliate Director of the Clarkson Space Grant Program which is part of the New York NASA Space Grant Consortium, and is a co-author of Aerodynamics for Engineering Students 6e (Butterworth Heinemann, 2012). • Updated with the features of the latest Matlab release • More complete coverage of Matlab windows and menus • Expanded discussion of writing functions and scripts • Revised and expanded Part II: Applications • Expanded section on GUIs • More exercises and examples throughout • Companion website for students providing M-files used within the book and selected solutions to end of chapter problems