Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems

Rating:
Summary: Good Introductory Text
Review: I had taken this class as a Freshman at University of Texas Austin. It provides a very good introduction to the standard methods of solving diff (especially second degree)equations. Also, there is a very good collection of problems at the end of every chapter. Some of the problems are accompanied with hints which turns out to be quite helpful. The discussion on Sturm Loiville is also quite good. I will reccomend this book to anyone who wants to comprehend the standard techniques of solving diff eqns.

Rating:
Summary: Useful for Learning Methods of Solution
Review: I recently took my college's "introductory" differential equations class. We did not use this book, but instead V.I. Ar'nold's, which isn't always quite appropriate for beginner's trying to understand how to solve a differential equation. So I turned to this one for reference. Overall, I found it to be of great help as a reference and guide to learning how to solve differential equations. It may well be QUITE dry, but I didn't really find that to be a hindrance. Overall, however, I would reccomend it more to the reader looking for a practical handbook for solving equations. If you're looking for the deep theory or beauty of the mathematics, you might want to look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD book as an introduction to Laplace and PDE problems
Review: I used this as an introduction to linear systems and laplace transforms and fourier series. Although, i feel that there should have been more examples to better illustrate the theory behind fourier series and PDE problems. But it defintely introduced these new topics quite well in terms of theorems and explanations.
I enjoyed the material on power series since I did not get a proper introduction to series at college and it is very interesting. you will defintely enjoy it if ur rreally a math oriented person.

Rating:
Summary: The best
Review: I was long looking for a book on differential equations and I found this one to be the most easy to follow. There are lots of solved problems and interesting exercises. I recommend it to everyone who has had an introductory course in diff. equations, but who'd like to pursue a deeper treatment of the subject.

Rating:
Summary: sorry but no good
Review: I'm a student that reads all my text books and relies heavy on them. This book starts off doing a great job on first order differential equations. However, as the book move on it falls short on examples,and doing a poor job explaining more advance topics. I had real trouble with the applied sections on secound order non-homogeneus equations. I have read the older additions of this book and think they were much better. Sorry !!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Good material, but falls short with examples
Review: I'm not the greatest math student, but I certainly manage to get along. Differential equations has thus far easily been the most annoying math class I've taken (multivariable calculus was a cakewalk). However, I am the kind of person that likes to look at problems which are solved out for me, and apply the procedure to whatever I am working on. While this book certainly provides many examples, it fails to provide some where critically needed. That is my main gripe with this book, and since it causes difficulty in my grasping of the material, that is why it loses two stars. However, the order of presentation of the material is adequate, and it is overall a very well paced textbook. If you have a good instructor or have some other way of obtaining help outside from this book, it serves as a wonderful companion resource. I have no experience with other differential equations textbooks, but I would recommend looking into a textbook with better examples (there's so little information on how to solve an oscillating system with an external force). Other than that, this is fine.

Rating:
Summary: can it GET any worse than this?
Review: If I could give this book a rating of negative infinity, I would. Its examples are sparse and takes many leaps of logic, its explanations are horrible, many of its key theorems are not emphasized enough and the ones that are emphasized are wrong, etc. The only good thing is that it has answers for every problem in the book.

Rating:
Summary: The sum of all fears.......
Review: In my opinion the text is one that's written by mathematicians for math majors. To the first time student, it comes across as being unapproachable and vague. Its almost as though the publisher wrote this text for the instructors to use as a tool to weed out students who struggle with mathematics.
Instead of purchasing Wileys text, I recommend two others: "Schaums Outline Of Differential Equations" and "Fundamentals Of Differential Equations" (By Nagle/Saff Publisher Addison Wesley).

Rating:
Summary: An aggravating textbook if you think spatially
Review: It is interesting that the reviews of this book are so polarized, probably a result of different ways of conceptualizing math. I lean very much towards spatial (three dimensional)thinking, and this book has proven utterly worthless to me.

This is unfortunate, because most aspiring engineerers think spatially, and most are required to take a differential equations course.

My specific complaints are numerous:

1) Far too few examples
2) Exremely disorganized (examples in the book will reference a formula, concept or previous example in previous sections rather than restating the problem. I spend a lot of time flipping pages back and forth, which significantly interferes with my train of thought.)
3) Essential components of an example will be presented in paragraph form, but the reader would be much better served by presenting the information in a table or at least using a block quotation.
4) The answers in the back of the book are regulary presented in an unusual form that requires unnecessary algebraic manipulation.
5) The language is unnecessarily theoretical.
6) The examples don't really present a step-by-step method for solving a problem, but devolve into further abstraction.
7) Further discussion of essential subject matter is presented in the problems section rather than in the heart of the chapter.

If you find yourself asking the questions, "What purpose does this technique serve? Why do we need to know this? How will this help me solve a problem in the real world? or Will you draw a picture of that?" then this book is likely of little value.

And if you have a bad teacher, you may just be sunk. I just bought REA's Differential Equation Problem Solver and Tennenbaum's "Ordinary Differential Equations". I hope it helps.

Rating:
Summary: 7th Differential Equations
Review: Its a pretty good book, but it helps if you have a excellant professor.