Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This book has basically everything for a full-year course, and it is explained pretty clearly. LOTS of solutions to problems are in the back, which was very helpful. The problems I had with the book include that many things took more space and time than needed and many times better examples could have been used, but if you don't mind reading a lot, this is a pretty good book.

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: This book has basically everything for a full-year course, and it is explained pretty clearly. LOTS of solutions to problems are in the back, which was very helpful. The problems I had with the book include that many things took more space and time than needed and many times better examples could have been used, but if you don't mind reading a lot, this is a pretty good book.

Rating:
Summary: The Bible on introductory differential equations
Review: This book has just the right mix of real world applications and appropriate theoretical rigor. It is a good book not only for self study but also for a class. I've been following this book since version 3 and it keeps improving with each version.

Rating:
Summary: Very educational and an Improvment over the 6th edition
Review: This book is a very good book to learn about differential equations, the most notable difference is that in the back of the book it has the answers to all the problems in each chapter. This is useful to make sure you are doing the problems right the first time. Some of the material is dry, and abstract but that is the norm for this subject matter. I would also recommend the student solutions manual for more worked out problems.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Good Book for Learning Applied Math
Review: This book is completely useless, not to mention ugly. Unless you have a great instructor, or really love esoteric mathematical language, you probably won't learn anything from this book. It is perhaps better suited for math majors than for science or engineering majors. It would seem that the authors are just trying to make things difficult by using only obscure Greek symbols in their definitions and examples. The worked out examples skip too many important steps--not just the elementary algebra. It is nice that the answers for all (not just the odd or even) problems are given in the back of the book; however, even the first couple problems in each section are too difficult. There at least needs to be a solution manual. It would be nice to have a few "easy" problems that would allow one to get a grasp of the basic concepts. If your instructor makes you buy this book, make sure that you get some sort of supplemental course outline book (Shaum's, etc.) or you will be completely lost.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is in a few words :Plainly one of the best introductions to diff eq. & boundary value problems I've ever seen .period.

Rating:
Summary: [Displeased]
Review: This book is not realistic in its approach to teaching differential equations. Problem based teaching only works if concepts are explained as well. However, in this text concepts are not thouroughly explained and the algorithms used to solve examples break down when a student is reqired to reason deductively to solve more involved problems. The authors did not have students in mind when writing this book. (Then again most things done at RPI are done w/o the students in mind).

Rating:
Summary: >>> Looking for another book on this subject... <<<
Review: This book is simply awful, one of the worst textbooks I've used for class purposes. Even though there seems to be plenty of examples, the books short fall is on explanations (i.e. how to get from one step to the next). This textbook also seems to make many assumptions about what the student may or may not know about prerequisite material. Definitions and General Formulas are not clearly boxed or highlighted, like you'd find in a James Stewart textbook. I'm currently looking for another Differential Equation textbook, in order to actually learn the material, and make it through my class this semester. I'm completely lost with this book. As a student (Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan) I've purchased many math textbooks over the years, and this one would probably rank as the worst- I would NOT recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A job well done...
Review: This book teaches ODE by doing the one think every student likes to learn by examples!! In each chapter you will find a couple of examples to illustrate the theory and concepts needed to solve the very few Diff.Eq. that we can. There is a complete answer key in the back, which is always a plus. The book includes proofs for most of the theorems (at least the ones that aren't too complicated to show in an introductory text). The book in general is laid out well, very organized and very helpful. I recently finished a course in Ordinary Differential Equations using this book and had no trouble doing well in the course thanks to the help of this book. Learning by examples is the main technique the authors use which is Great!!! Too many math texts recite theory without giving adequate examples.

Rating:
Summary: Even answers too!
Review: This book was pretty much useless. Yeah, this book definitely sucks. Examples are sparse and not very helpful. The problems are also ridiculously tedious. Only reason I gave it a 2 was because it also had even answers in the back.