Kindergarten of Fractional Calculus

Book excerpt: This book presents a simplified deliberation of fractional calculus, which will appeal not only to beginners, but also to various applied science mathematicians and engineering researchers. The text develops the ideas behind this new field of mathematics, beginning at the most elementary level, before discussing its actual applications in different areas of science and engineering. This book shows that the simple, classical laws based on Newtonian calculus, which work quite well under limiting and idealized conditions, are not of much use in describing the dynamics of actual systems. As such, the application of non-Newtonian, or generalized, calculus in the governing equations, allows the order of differentiation and integration to take on non-integer values.