User:Jmath666/Scientific computation

Scientific computation or scientific computing refers to the use of computers to solve scientific problems using mathematical methods. A number of names are used by different communities for overlapping fields within this area. Some of the names came into common use because of major U.S. funding initiatives and other research programs.

Areas within scientific computation

Computational mathematics refers to the mathematical research related to computation; currently, it considered the theoretical side of scientific computation, and also a part of mathematics. Essentially the Mathematics of scientific computation.

• Numerical analysis deals with the properties of numerical schemes for solving mathematical problems, such as systems of equations and formal proofs. Considered part of Computational mathematics as well as Computer science.
• Computer science originally started as mathematical research into computation. This is now called theoretical computer science. Computer science itself is currently an engineering discipline develping tools for computation.
• Supercomputing deals with the efficient use of the most powerful computers available at the current time. Also called Large scale computation and High performance computing, associated with those funding initiatives in the U.S.
• Computational science and engineering deals with research in science and engineering made possible by computation and replacing physical experiments by simulations. Also called computational science, computational engineering, engineering simulation, etc.

The boundaries between the terms above are fuzzy and all of those terms (except for Numerical mathematics and Numerical analysis, which clearly involve formal mathematics and proofs) have been in use at one time or other as synonyms for scientific computation itself.