[jeffwass]

This 100%.

20+ years ago I took my NR class as part of my physics PhD program, it was a required course for all physics and astronomy students.

I don't think anybody in the class was planning to use the actual recipes from the book as a drop-in placement for their work, but it was to explain the methods behind the software we all used (Matlab in my group, IDL and IRAF for the astronomers, etc), so users can make the best choice for which curve fitting or regression or optimisation routines to call, and avoid potential pitfalls.

To me it seems like an OS class that uses minix to explain behind-the-scenes operation system functionality. Hardly anyone in the class will go on to use Minix as their primary OS in their future career. (I've not done any formal CS study, so forgive the analogy).