Book excerpt: Completely revised text focuses on use of spectral methods to solve boundary value, eigenvalue, and time-dependent problems, but also covers Hermite, Laguerre, rational Chebyshev, sinc, and spherical harmonic functions, as well as cardinal functions, linear eigenvalue problems, matrix-solving methods, coordinate transformations, methods for unbounded intervals, spherical and cylindrical geometry, and much more. 7 Appendices. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Over 160 text figures.