Spherical Harmonics, Hermite and Other Special Polynomials etc.

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Lebedev's "Special Functions & Their Applications" is recommended for its comprehensive coverage and practical problems, making it a valuable resource for learning about special functions. However, there is a debate regarding the relevance of studying these functions in the age of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS), which can handle manipulations more efficiently than individuals. This raises a broader question about the necessity of teaching fundamental mathematical skills, such as basic arithmetic and algebra, if advanced tools can perform these tasks. It is suggested that a good differential equations textbook might also address the study of special functions, as they often arise in that context.
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Whats a good book to learn about these topics?
 
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Lebedev, Special functions & Their Applications (Dover books) covers these thoroughly, includes many worked out problems in the "Applications" chapter accompanying each topic, and is inexpensive!
 
looks good, thanks.
 
i don't understand the point of studying these functions anymore considering any good CAS will manipulate them much better than you ever will.
 
ice109 said:
i don't understand the point of studying these functions anymore considering any good CAS will manipulate them much better than you ever will.

So I guess we should stop teaching children how to add, multiply, and do algebra?
 
Don't these usually crop up from the study of differential equations? So a differential equations book might be the correct place? Any decent DE book should cover this stuff I think.
 

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