Rating: 
Summary: good for non-math people
Review: Easy to follow examples. Great conceptual models. This book has plenty of useful applications in the real world: physics, biology, engineering, and chemistry. There is no math flood to drown non-math students. Great intro to Ordinary Diff. Eq.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is not worth the paper it is printed on!
Review: First all the books that I've bought have had all odd number problems in the back of the book. Well the greedy s.o.b do not put all of the odd answers in the back of the book because these crap heads just want to sell you a student guide that take's another shortcut and does every third problems. When these " rocket scientists " know that the professors assigning the home work usually assign the odd numbers when they intently do the problems 1,4,7, and if that's not bad enough they charge you 35.00 for a 1/4 in paperback... I feel violated!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Keep looking
Review: I agree with the 1 stars.
I was "forced" to use this book for my Diff Eq class. Although the book is typset beautifully, the content fell very short. Zill begins each section with an inspired generalization. Then things fall apart rapidly. His explanations seem to be very lacking (and there isn't much in the way of examples!).I'm an engineering major, not a theoretical math major, so this book and I didn't connect at ALL. I have used other texts (Ross), which I much preferred over this "learning tool".
Rating:
Summary: Keep looking
Review: I agree with the 1 stars.
I was "forced" to use this book for my Diff Eq class. Although the book is typset beautifully, the content fell very short. Zill begins each section with an inspired generalization. Then things fall apart rapidly. His explanations seem to be very lacking (and there isn't much in the way of examples!). I'm an engineering major, not a theoretical math major, so this book and I didn't connect at ALL. I have used other texts (Ross), which I much preferred over this "learning tool".
Rating:
Summary: Simply one of the worst Math books I have used
Review: I am sorry that there isn't a rating less than one star. When I read this book, I thought that Zill's intent was to confuse and mislead. The book's chapters contain unclear examples and vauge explanations of the material. Zill tends to place all of the very important ideas and concepts that are directly related to the exercises in small "footnotes" at the end of each chapter. The only joy I got out of this book was, at the beginning of some chapters, reading sentences where Zill seemed to be inspired where he would say things like, "It is one of the more interesting facts of mathematical life...". Unless you are interested in pain, avoid this book like the plague.
Rating:
Summary: Do not recommend
Review: I am using this book for my D.E. class. The solutions manual [is bad], solving only every third problem. I found the reading quite difficult to understand and the pages are boring and bland!!!
Rating: 
Summary: An Enjoyable Book Overall
Review: I enjoyed using this book in my DiffEq class. It gives lots of examples and a variety of homework problems. It proved to be very useful for me.
Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable Book Overall
Review: I enjoyed using this book in my DiffEq class. It gives lots of examples and a variety of homework problems. It proved to be very useful for me.
Rating:
Summary: This book is very well written, and deserves attention.
Review: I must comment, in the light of the statements made by those that reviewed this book before me, that this book is not what they say it is. Either they did not take into account all of the facts before they made their judgements, or we are reffering to a different book, which I do not believe we are. I am a sophomore mathematics major at Merced College, and I am currently being taught from this book. I believe that this book has great potential because of its readabilty, the scope of its problems, and its attention to applications (realizing that many of the students taking this course are engineering majors). On the other hand, the author could have included a few more proofs, and I realize that the lack of answers to odd numbered problems in the back of the book a legitimate complaint. I do not believe, though, that these minor details are so important that someone would hesitate buying this book because of them.
Rating:
Summary: A good application oriented text.
Review: I think before reading all other reviews of Zill's text, one must consider who did the 'panning'. Was it an instructor who used it to teach the class or a disgrunteled student who was unhappy about taking the class in the first place or unhappy with the grade received? This text is a little easier to read than most. It could be more thorough, but that would not be necessary for an undergraduate class. Professionally, I would prefer numerical methods come earlier, but I have no other criticism. I use it to teach DE and the good students all seem to like it while those who are failing would not like anything associated with the course. I don't necessarily cover the topics in the same order as the chapters are laid out, but the book is versatile enough that it doesn't cause any problems.
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