Differential Equations Demystified

by Steven G. Krantz

Book Overview

Here's the perfect self-teaching guide to help anyone master differential equations--a common stumbling block for students looking to progress to advanced topics in both science and math. Covers First... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071440259
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 0.8" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book for review/introduction

I read some of the other reviews before writing this, and -- with all due respect, etc. etc. -- I think some of the other reviewers are missing the point of the entire series (Demystified) books. The book is intended as a short, pithy, introduction to the topic. It makes no pretense of providing in-depth coverage, either of theory, or of all possible topics. This series of books is intended to provide a survey of many, but not all, commonly used techniques in a field; and it is intended to provide relatively simple examples and exercises so that the self-teaching student can get his/her feet wet. I've just finished two chapters (and skimmed the rest), and so far I'm very pleased with the level of the treatment. You do need some prior calculus background, but if you have that, the book should be easy to follow. My own background was undergraduate physics, and, years later, I've decided to brush up. The book provides excellent review, as well as introducing me to topics I never quite "got" back in college. If you want in-depth theory, or more comprehensive coverage of various techniques, or more advanced and challenging examples/home work problems, *or* conditions for solubility, go buy a standard, $100 college textbook on DiffEQs. However, if you want an accessible, inexpensive, brief but not overly-brief treatment of the fundamental techniques of solving differential equations, this book is very good. (By the way, the book includes the basics for at least some partial differential equations, as well as ordinary differential equations.) Is it perfect? No. There is one subsection, for example, on using DiffEQs to make the connection between Newton's laws and Kepler's laws, and that particular subsection is not entirely clear. But I can forgive an occasional rough spot in a book that is overall clearly written, and well-designed for the self-study student.

Excellent

I bought this book because I am considering getting a graduate degree in math, so I thought it would be useful as a book to brush up with. This book is highly readable and the examples are laid out well. There are ample exercises to test your knowledge of the various techniques for solving diff eqs, answers are included also. It is quite a bit better than the text that was used in engineering school.

Perfect for my application

I teach this subject. The book is perfect for a first course whose purpose is to introduce foundational topics from both ordinary and partial differential equations. Not a lot of theory, but I find that the theory undergirding a technique is a lot more palatable when the student has confidence in his ability to use that technique in practice. DE Demystified gets right to the point, presents the method, and then gives examples and practice problems. I learn math by doing it and this book is just what I was looking for. Several other books are available in the classroom for students who choose to go more in depth on any particular topic, and I use other resources for additional problems and to code programs for numerical solutions. But this is the book the students must buy and bring to class. I really like the presentation in DE Demystified.