Book Description

If you want top grades and thorough understanding of differential equations, this powerful study tool is the best tutor you can have! It takes you step-by-step through the subject and gives you 563 accompanying problems with fully worked solutions. You also get plenty of practice problems to do on your own, working at your own speed. (Answers at the back show you how you're doing.) Famous for their clarity, wealth of illustrations and examples, and lack of dreary minutiae, Schaum’s Outlines have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide—and this guide will show you why! ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Wonderfully written, straight-to-the-point book
Whenever I want to brush up my ODE and PDE skills, I will reach out to this one. It is like instant "stock-up", refresh my memories very fast. Good buy.

Good, to-the-point, well-balanced.
I like this book a lot more than my Diff. Eq. textbook, mostly because it focuses on application rather than abstraction. Bronson does a good job of explaining the mechanisms and applications of DE, while cutting through most of the kludgy rhetoric and laborious explanations of my course textbook. The examples are straight-forward without too much of a stretch to see how they work, while the explanations are quick and to-the-point.

I would thoroughly recommend buying the Schaum's Easy Outline for DE in addition to this book, since I find the Easy Outline to be easier to pick up quickly on a first read. The Easy Outline is essentially the Outline, boiled down to the bare essentials and re-written to be easier to absorb quickly. The regular outline (this book) does a good job of filling in the gaps and providing more examples on top of the Easy Outilne.

My copy (2nd edition, current) shows an original copyright date of 1973, with another in 1994 to reflect the Library of Congress title update (the title change was minute, and not worth repeating). I was surprised by the extreme similarity between some examples in the Ouline versus those in my course textbook (carrying a 2003 copyright in its 7th edition). It makes you wonder if this is the reference for the textbook writers!

My only criticism of this book is that it is not a textbook. If it were, I wouldn't have to spend four times as much on another book which I use for not much more than the exercises. Oh, and the Outline HAS plenty of problems, both solved and not.

Differential Equations-Schaum's Outline Series
I have reviewed several versions of this work in connection
with taking the course and passing the Engineering In Training
Licensure Examination. Topics; such as, valuation of parameters,
constants of integration, homogeneous and non-homogeneous
solutions, nth order equations, applications of differential
equations, equations in electric circuits and gram mixtures
in organic chemistry are all covered in considerable detail.
This work together with Boyce and DiPrima plus the professor's notes helped me to get an "A" in the course. Differential
Equations is a course requiring considerable practice to master
the various techniques. I spent between 15 minutes and 2 hours
per day depending upon the juncture point in the course.
Obviously, studying for the mid-term and final exam required
more concentrated study. Overall, this book is a gem.
You will need it to handle the various twists and turns
in the subject. It is geared toward the math major or engineering perspective so that the problems vary from simple to complex.
In this course, you cannot let the so-called grass grow
under your feet; otherwise, the pace of the presentation
will bury you in confusing details before long.

Substitute for college text books
When I took differential equations the college wanted us to buy the textbook for $135 and the solutions manual for $15. They were horrible!! I bought Schaum's Outline of Differential Equations ...and used it instead. (...) Dr. Bronson explains concepts very well and has many detailed solutions to examples. There are also supplementary problems with the answers in the back. I recommend this item to anyone taking differential equations.

Not for beginners
Although I'm taking a medium-level differential equations class now, we have still not covered much of the material in this book. The cover falsely advertizes this book as something that can be used with an intro calculus class or AP calculus class. This book is the last book you will want to buy to help you for one of those classes. If you're taking an intermediate to upper level differential equations class, think about buying this book. Otherwise forget it. ... Read more

Book Description

A clear, concise book that emphasizes finding solutions to differential equations where applications play an important role. Each chapter includes many illustrative examples to assist the reader. KEY TOPICS: The book emphasizes methods for finding solutions to differential equations. It provides many abundant exercises, applications, and solved examples with careful attention given to readability. Elementary Differential Equations includes a thorough treatment of power series techniques. In addition, the book presents a classical treatment of several physical problems to show how Fourier series become involved in the solution of those problems. The eighth edition of Elementary Differential Equations has been revised to include a new supplement in many chapters that provides suggestions and exercises for using a computer to assist in the understanding of the material in the chapter. It also now provides an introduction to the phase plane and to different types of phase portraits.A valuable reference book for readers interested in exploring the technological and other applications of differential equations. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Organized very well
I am teaching this course over the summer of 2004 and I find the organization of the book to be very good. I like that each of the sections covers one, and only one, topic at a time. This really allowed me to make a course that works for the summer (when time is severely limited).

The book is very straight-forward in its explanations. However, the exposition is very limited. That means the reader will have to work out a lot of the details.

As a teacher, the book works for me. I can furnish, in class, all of the details that are lacking - that's what they pay me for.

For self study, I would not recommend this book because of the lacking details. I would have to go with the great book by Tenenbaum and Pollard for those that want to self study this subject.

All in all, I really like the book's structure - each section has exactly one point to make, and then exercises to test the one topic in that section. Also, every other chapter has a collection of "miscellaneous problems" that I pull from for the tests. The miscellaneous problems are great, because I can tell my students that those are the problems I am going to use on their tests (a subset at least). That gets the students to work all of those problems (great motivation).

I would give this book 5 stars if an instructor came with the book. Otherwise, it is a good book that leaves many of the simple and intricate details to the reader.

my favourite ODEs text!
I was stuck with Boyce/DiPrima for an ODEs course & I didn't like it, but I found this one in their bibliography & it turned out to be much better. I think there ARE enough examples to make things clear, and lots & lots of problems to work through. Also, it doesn't make a difference to me whether there's a solutions manual or if it has mistakes because I never use one; I just plug the solutions into the equation & see of they work. (I guess if there are mistakes, they should be fixed though)

Elementary Differential Equations
[..]Let me warn all potential customers that this book is all about quantity of material instead of quality. While the book does cover such advanced topics as Fourier Analysis and intro to Partial Differential Equations, the book lacks sufficient examples about what is being said (a number of sections have no examples at all).

I did find the most well-written sections to be the application of second-order differential equations (applied to spring oscillations etc.) However, as far as getting a bang for your buck, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Morris Tennenbaum and Harry Polland's Ordinary Differential Equations Dover edition (cheaper, and MUCH MORE effective. Trust me).

Concise Not Bulky
I love the book, as a Math major it doesn't take any space on the shelf. There were a few errors in the book, but not enough make the book suck. Good, solid book Once you get the ideas it becomes easy.

I second that!
I agree with the review dated March 14, 1999. I'd also like to add that as of Chapter 2, I've found at least three misprints in the solutions manual. Normally, these types of mistakes are not that much of a problem. But this should be unacceptable for any decent technical writing, especially mathematics. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

50 bucks for every other odd problem??
This is way too expensive for a solutions manual. Plus it only gives solutions to every other odd problem. Not worth it for the amount of money they want. Save your money for a tutor.

Keep Your Money & Find a Really Good Tutor Instead!
If you got an "A" in all of your Calc. classes, you won't need this book. If you got "B"s or "C"s, and are looking for guidance from this solutions manual, you will get very little. This book skips to every 3rd problem (i.e. 3, 6, 9, 12, etc.) and barely explains the steps. It gives the solution, and maybe 1 or 2 steps along the way. That's it. This book is very thin, only about 125 pages, and was the most expensive of all the solutions manuals I've bought before. This book needs to be redone to mirror other solutions manuals, which give nearly complete solutions to ALL ODD NUMBER PROBLEMS. In my opinion, don't waste your money on this book, instead, make sure you have an excellent professor, or find a really good tutor.

just a pamphlet
the book is very thin.( a big stack of blank pages at the end to give weight) it could habe been part of the textbook. they just want more money although the book is very needed indeed

good author, every third problem, explinations
this textbook supplement is a very usefull tool for students. The original author, zill, is excellent; thus, the problems are somewhat tricky; furthermore, the solutions are worked out to good extent: they show the neccesary steps, but leave some work for the student; thus, knowledge of the material is still necessary. ... Read more

Book Description

This book applied the techniques of dynamical systems and bifurcation theories to the study of nonlinear oscillations. Taking the cue from Poincare, the authors stress the geometrical and topological properties of solutions of differential equations and iterated maps. Numerous exercises, some of which require nontrivial algebraic manipulations and computer work, convey the important analytical underpinnings of problems in dynamical systems and help the reader develop an intuitive feel for the properties involved. In this fifth printing the authors have corrected further errors, oversights and updates. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Will never collect dust....
This book has been a continuing source of information and guidance for 18 years now. Students and researchers in many different fields have used this book due to its breadth and detail of coverage. The book does require a fairly advanced mathematical background, but the authors do include a glossary for the reader lacking this.

Chapter one is an overview of differential equations and dynamical systems. All the concepts needed for a study of such systems are discussed in great detail and also very informally, stressing instead the understanding of the concepts, and not merely their definition. Some of the proofs of the main results, such as the Hartman-Grobman and the stable manifold theorems, are omitted however.

This is followed in Chapter 2 by a very intuitive discussion of the van der Pols equation, Duffings equation, the Lorenz equations, and the bouncing ball. Numerical calculations are effectively employed to illustrate some of the main properties of the systems modeled by these equations.

A taste of bifurcation theory follows in Chapter 3. Center manifolds are defined and many examples are given, but the proof of the center manifold theorem is omitted unfortunately. Normal forms and Hopf bifurcations are treated in detail.

Averaging methods are discussed in Chapter 4, with part of the averaging theorem proved using a version of Gronwall's lemma. Several interesting examples of averaging are given, along with a discussion of to what extent the bifurcation properties of the averaged equations carry over to the original equations. Most importantly, this chapter discusses the Melnikov function, so very important in the study of small perturbations of dynamical systems with a hyperbolic fixed point. A full proof that simple zeros of the Melnikov function imply the transversal intersection of the stable and unstable manifolds is given.

Chapter 5 moves on to results of a more purely mathematical nature, where symbolic dynamics and the Smale horseshoe map are discussed. The proofs of the stable manifold theorem and the Palis lambda lemma are, however, omitted. Markov partitions and the shadowing lemma are discussed also but the latter is not proven. The authors do however give a proof of the Smale-Birkhoff homoclinic theorem. A purely mathematical overview of attractors is given along with measure-theoretic (ergodic) properties of dynamical systems.

The (local) bifurcation theory of Chapter 3 is extended to global bifurcations in the next chapter. A very detailed discussion of rotation numbers is given but the KAM theory is only briefly mentioned. The main emphasis is on 1-dimensional maps, the Lorentz system, and Silnikov theory. The authors give a very detailed treatment of wild hyperbolic sets.

The book ends with a discussion of bifurcations from equilibrium points that have multiple degeneracies. The discussion is more motivated from a physical standpont than the last few chapters. But some interesting mathematical constructions are employed, namely the role of k-jets, which have fascinating connections with algebraic goemetry, via the "blowing-up" techniques.

The concepts in the book have proven to have enduring value in the study of dynamical systems, and this book will no doubt continue to serve students and researchers in the years to come.

Background
Guckenheimer is one of my favourite book in nonlinear science. Another absolute reference. This books deserved to be milestone in nonlinear dynamics.

Changed the Nature of Science As We Know It.
This book has clearly withstood the test of time in over 15 years of continuous publication. On my bookcase, it stands among my most treasured and well-worn classics of fluid mechanics and differential equations--Hirsch and Smale, Birkhoff and Rota, Chandrasekhar, Bachelor, Lamb, Landau and Lifschitz... It changed many of the unquestioned assumptions of many fields besides my own. It redefined the terms of many scientific debates. And, it changed my life.

I obtained Guckenheimer and Holmes' classic when it first came out in 1983. It was so clear, concise and intellectually engaging that it inspired me to wonder whether the system of equations I was studying for my Ph.D. research at the time--the governing equations of thermal convection at infinite Prandtl number (which govern plate tectonics in the earth's mantle)--might have a chaotic solution. Guckenheimer and Holmes outlined a clear methodology to find out the answer.

My advisor at the University of Chicago thought not. Only steady solutions could be admitted in the absence of external forcing due to the lack of momentum transfer--this belief was widely held at the time, despite certain oscillatory solutions found by Fritz Busse (then at UCLA) and chaotic solutions found in certain limiting cases by Andrew Fowler at Oxford.

In despair, I left my studies at Chicago to work as a Unix sysadmin at my undergraduate alma mater --Cornell, where (unbeknownst to me when I took the job) John Guckenheimer had just relocated from UCSC. Delighted to find him there, I sat in on his courses. Later, with his help, I wrote a proposal to NASA to support the completion of my thesis--with him and Donald Turcotte serving as my advisors.

The 3-year fellowship was approved, and during this time I demonstrated and published that thermal convection at infinite Prandtl number--a condition that pervades many planetary interiors including our own--is indeed chaotic in the absence of external forcing.

Prior to this, planetary convection codes primarily looked for steady state solutions. Since, numerical analysts in the field have upgraded to time-dependent models. The source of chaos at infinite Prandtle number I identified--the heat advection term--is now widely accepted as the source of what is now called "Thermal Turbulence" in planetary interiors.

The defense at Chicago was quite an event. Since my new advisors were flown in from Ithaca, you might say my thesis--The Nonlinear Dynamics of Thermal Convection at Infinite Prandtl Number--passed with flying colors. Someone at Chicago might disagree, but his opinion is irrelevant.

Demonstrating the many possible solutions to a single set of equations and showing how the choice of solution depends very sensitively on the rather poorly-constrained initial conditions of the earth--does render mantle modeling itself rather superfluous and indeed, scientifically suspect. However, many important professors who stayed in the field nonetheless continue to run their time-dependent mantle convection codes, and never cease to wonder at the fact that they all get different results. It's rather amusing, really.

When all that too has passed away, the truths so beautifully put forth in Guckenheimer and Holmes will remain. Like I said, it's a classic. Furthermore, being number 42 in its series, it's got to be the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. Was for me, anyway.

Basic and clasic
For the moment it is "the" book on Dynamical Systems, through the world. Its first chapter is a good introduction on the mathematics needed to aboard the subject. The second introduces chaos, and the rest is for a good understanding of the newest and prolific science. ... Read more

Book Description

Published by McGraw-Hill since its first edition in 1941, this classic text is an introduction to Fourier series and their applications to boundary value problems in partial differential equations of engineering and physics.It will primarily be used by students with a background in ordinary differential equations and advanced calculus.There are two main objectives of this text.The first is to introduce the concept of orthogonal sets of functions and representations of arbitrary functions in series of functions from such sets.The second is a clear presentation of the classical method of separation of variables used in solving boundary value problems with the aid of those representations. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent
This book is quite thorough, but remains easy to follow (considering the material). It starts out with partial differential equations (no previous PDE experience needed) and shows where Fourier series comes from, which I found motivating since the purpose of Fourier Analysis was evident from the beginning. It then goes into making solutions of arbitrary functions out of sine and cosine functions as well as touching on other orthogonal sets.

The book's main focus is on starting with PDEs and ending with a solution of a Fourier series.

The first chapter was the hardest since the approaches to problems were much different than in calculus, but after adjusting to the material and the approaches to the problems, it gets easier!

Great text for an intro to pde's course!
My first encounter with partial differential equations was out of this book. Since then, I've had another course on pde's, and used this book as a reference quite often. Fourier Series adn Boundary Value Problems is very much like Complex Variables and Applicatoins, also by Churchill and Brown. It's accessible to a large audience. Though it would help to have had an advanced calculus course, it isn't necessary to understand the mechanics of solving pde's (namely the variables seperable cases, which is mostly what's in this book). If you're an undergraduate math, engineering or physics student, you'll probably be using this book.

Try Another Text
I found Dr. Brown, in conjunction with Dr. Churchill, to have written a very dry and non-useful text. It fails to provide the undergraduate student with the resources and background information that more highly touted books offer. There are a few examples that are somewhat helpful, but overall I found myself having to use reference texts to supplement this one. I am not a math major, but am continually searching for good math texts to help me grasp the fundamentals of more difficult topics. I did not find that help here. Too much 'math prose' and not enough to-the-point definitions and examples, which is the cry of every non-math major. Their treatment of the Laplacian is not even worth the bother of placing it in the book. The physical size of the book is small, (9 1/2 by 6") with 335 pages. Not nearly enough for the treatment of its titled subject.

An excellent book on Fourier Series
This is a great book that gives precise examples which are easy to comprehend. Dr. Brown proves to be an excellent author once again. ... Read more

Book Description

The Handbook of Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations is the latest in a series of acclaimed handbooks by these authors and presents exact solutions of more than 1600 nonlinear equations encountered in science and engineering--many more than any other book available. The equations include those of parabolic, hyperbolic, elliptic and other types, and the authors pay special attention to equations of general form that involve arbitrary functions.A supplement at the end of the book discusses the classical and new methods for constructing exact solutions to nonlinear euqations. To accommodate different mathematical backgrounds, the authors avoid wherever possible the use of special terminology, outline some of the methods in a schematic, simplified manner, and arrange the equations in increasing order of complexity.Highlights of the Handbook: ... Read more

Book Description

Sobolev Spaces presents an introduction to the theory of Sobolev Spaces and other related spaces of function, also to the imbedding characteristics of these spaces. This theory is widely used in pure and Applied Mathematics and in the Physical Sciences.

This second edition of Adam's 'classic' reference text contains many additions and much modernizing and refining of material. The basic premise of the book remains unchanged: Sobolev Spaces is intended to provide a solid foundation in these spaces for graduate students and researchers alike.

*Self-contained and accessible for readers in other disciplines.
*Written at elementary level making it accessible to graduate students. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An invaluable resource
As a PhD student in mathematics focusing on theoretical PDE, I find this monograph to be one of the most useful in my collect. The book is self contained and very easy to read, requiring only a background in real analysis at the beginning graduate/senior undergrad level. This text covers a wide range of topics from the basics of topological vector spaces, all the way through interpolation methods and Besov spaces, but maintains a deep enough level so that most researchers will find this book to be very useful as a reference for the subject. In particular, I really like the completeness by which the imbedding theorems in the book are stated and proved. In addition to the content, the book is also beautifully bound and is printed on very high quality paper.

very interesting
A very interesting textbook for people interested in functional analysis. It provides a great introduction for beginners but also clear and rigorous demonstrations of more technical points.

highly recommended
I highly recommend this book. It is a valuable reference and a great introduction to sobolev spaces for people interested in functional analysis. ... Read more

Book Description

Since its introduction in 1828, using Green's functions has become a fundamental mathematical technique for solving boundary value problems. Most treatments, however, focus on its theory and classical applications in physics rather than the practical means of finding Green's functions for applications in engineering and the sciences.Green's Functions with Applications systematically presents the various methods of deriving these useful functions. It leads readers through the process of developing Green's functions for ordinary and partial differential equations. In addition to exploring the classical problems involving the wave, heat, and Helmholtz equations, the book includes special sections on leaky modes, water waves, and absolute/convective instability.The author gives special attention to the numerical evaluation of Green's functions. By illustrating many of the functions in the text and problem sets, he helps readers develop an intuition about the behavior of Green's function in certain problems. He also considers the questions of the computational efficiency and possible methods for accelerating the process.With its wealth of examples and problems drawn from the literature, this book provides a treasure-trove of methods to construct and compute Green's functions. It is the most exhaustive source book of Green's functions yet available and the only one designed specifically for engineering and scientific applications. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An End All to Green's Function Books? - A Start!
Green's Functions are heavily emphasized in graduate programs in engineering, applied math and physics. They're a useful way in solving many differential equation related problems in many fields. Unfortunately, for many (like me), the Green's Function (and it's uses) seemed restricted to 'textbook' problems. Not anymore.

I had to get this book for use at work. Even though Green Functions were introduced to me in graduate school, it was never a tool I got accustomed to. Because of the necessity (and now ease of use) of the Green's Functions, I had to learn to use it effectively. Now, with Duffy's book, I'm using as a tool in solving many E'nM and photonic problems.

Duffy's book on Green's Functions with Applications really develops the Green's Function mathematically based on physical and historical needs. At first, I thought the book might lead me into too 'mathematical' of a diversion than I cared for. Fortunately, this book balances mathematical rigor and practical use. Duffy further presses the uses of Green's Functions by introducing it into applications. These applications give a good run down on the concepts and techniques needed to apply it to other problems. Duffy book doesn't alienate the readers, and gives plenty of examples to allow the student to work out problems on their own.

Don't cut yourself short. Green's Functions are a useful tool, and Green's Functions with Applications by Dean G. Duffy is an effective way of learning to be fully competent with this tool (Green's Functions). A definite plus to self-learners and practicing professionals (and students). ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Don't buy this book.
This is definitely not written as an introductory text to differential equations. The theory is poorly explained and the examples are far from lucid. If you are a math major major and want to do some reading in your spare time buy it, otherwise just leave it on the shelf.

Differential Equations...
Although this book is used in introductory differential equation courses, it contains too few worked examples to work as an introductory text. The student who uses this book should have some (not a lot, but some) background on the subject, even if they get that knowledge from the professor's lecture. My professor gave formulas for reduction of order and variation of parameters that were easier to use than those given in the book. Then again, he explained the topic so well that I hardly had to use the book except for homework, and I still got an A+. The book is well written, but perhaps better suited for an intermediate differential equations course.

An excellent text
I used the fifth edition of this textbook for my differential equations class, and since then I have continued to use it. The examples do a thorough job of explaining new concepts, as long as the reader is comfortable with working along and filling in the extra steps (Actually, in my opinion, this should be the standard method for learning from a textbook).

Since my first differential equations class, I have encountered some difficulty understanding partial differential equations, particularly heat equations and vibrations of a spring. The textbook I use for my intermediate engineering math course that I am covering this material for does a sloppy and incoherent job. However, using this book as a reference I was able to break down the process to "discovering" partial differential equations and am on my way to understanding at least heat equations and vibrating strings rather well. This book also clearly facilitates the reasoning behind fourier series and transforms.

I highly recommend this book. Although I didn't have much choice in selecting it for my courses, its use after the end of the intended course certainly exemplifies its value.

Not Fundamental
The course in ODE using this text was my tenth mathematics class and this book took the cake in the "Worst Math Book Ever" category. The authors explain too much information in an abstract way with a major lack of corresponding examples. It is also the only math book of the ten I have that I never go back to for reference. It ended up being the most expensive toilet paper I ever bought. The only saving grace for the future editions of this line of texts is that the author passed away last year. If anyone needs this book for an ODE class, I strongly recommend the schaumms(sp) outline for ODE.

Seems clear & well-organized, with nicely displayed examples
I have to admit I haven't read this book in detail - just browsed throught it at a bookstore. But I have studied a number of other ODE books, including Boyce and DiPrima, and looked at this to clarify a bit of confusion on the method of undetermined coefficients. It was very clear, clearer than Boyce. Also there seemed to be numerous examples of various methods, and a wide selection of methods in both ODE's and PDE's for an elementary textbook. My general impression was that it is rather similar to Boyce, but even clearer. Perhaps these books are a bit advanced for some beginning students though? ... Read more

Book Description

This very accessible guide offers a thorough introductionto the basics of differential equations and linear algebra. Expertly integrating the two topics, it explains concepts clearly and logically -without sacrificing level or rigor - and supports material with a vast array of problems of varying levels for readers to choose from. Promotes in-depth understanding (vs. rote memorization) - enabling readers to fully comprehend abstract concepts and finish with a solid and working knowledge oflinear mathematics. Offers one of the most lucid and clearly written narratives on the subject, with material that is accessible to the average reader, yet challenging to all. Presents a greater emphasis on geometry to help users better visualize the abstract concepts, and illustrates all concepts with an ample amount of worked examples. Second Edition highlights include new discussions direction fields and Euler's method for first order differential equations; row space and column space of a matrix, and the rank-nullity theorem; non-linear systems of differential equations, including phase plane analysis; and change of variables for differential equations. Now features a chapter on second order linear differential equations that is not based on vector space methods to gives users a firmer grasp of the differential equation concept early on, and also on the solution techniques for this important class of differential equations. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A Festering Pile of Horse Manure
I only gave this book one star because Amazon has no zero rating.

A year-old newspaper is more useful than this book. Why? Because if the newspaper is lining my cat's litterbox, it is serving a useful purpose. This book is worthless. And, because it was so damn expensive, I can't use it to contain any of my kitty's little messes. Rot in hell, Stephen W. Goode!!! While you sip pina coladas in the Hamptons, thousands of students around the country are going bonkers trying to decipher your unreadable, cryptic prose. No explainations, no examples, just lots of headaches and an empty wallet.

Mr T says:

I pity da foo who gotta buy dis book! Too much jibbajabba!

Just avoid it.....
It is hard to understand why my university is using this book, but it is, and going from Calculus I/II, taught through "Calculus: Concepts and Contexts" by Stewart (a GREAT book where examples are explained and *gasp* a solutions manual was available!!) to this stale-piece-of-bread of a book is ridiculous. Hopefully you will have a teacher that teaches better than this book reads, not to mention a math department that can just steer clear away from this ungodly book..

Lack of color and reader-friendly design? Just the tip of the iceberg, seriously, unless you are just use to books written in math and not in english, you'll be fairly disapointed.

Great Book!
This book is great for any student trying to learn introductory DE and linear algebra. I'm a high school student, and because I had a teacher who did not understand the topic, I had to read the entire book from chapters 1 to 8. His explanations are broad as well as clear, and he fully interprets the significance of the tools he is teaching in the book.

Despite some of the above reviews of dissatisfied students, try the book yourself! (Only thing I didn't like much was the book's lack of color and a lack of reader-friendly design)

I still use this book
I am a Math major and found this book to be very helpful. Even for other classes I found myself turning back to this book to explain some topics from other higher level mathematics. The explanation is general at times, but that helps to understand the underlying concepts. This course requires a lot of work, and it is important to understand why problems must be solved a certain way, memorization isn't necessarily required, just remember the steps taken.

I will warn you though I am a little biased, I took this course from the author and it was by far my favorite math class.

Worst Math Textbook Ever
I'm a mechanical engineering student at Purdue University, which means I don't have 12 hours/day to work on diffeq or linear algebra. Circuits and dynamics make sure of that. This book explains nothing to the reader. If you're thinking of skipping lecture to sleep a little longer, don't. There is absolutely no way you'll be able to learn how to do the problems using the text. At least the calculus book we used for 3 semesters was useful in teaching the material. ... Read more

Book Description

Partial differential equations and variational methods were introduced into image processing about 15 years ago, and intensive research has been carried out since then. The main goal of this work is to present the variety of image analysis applications and the precise mathematics involved. It is intended for two audiences. The first is the mathematical community, to show the contribution of mathematics to this domain and to highlight some unresolved theoretical questions. The second is the computer vision community, to present a clear, self-contained, and global overview of the mathematics involved in image processing problems. This book will be useful to researchers and graduate students in mathematics and computer vision. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

It is my bible!
This book not only includes the state-of-art image processig techniques using math methods, but also provides very good numerical schemes for these methods. This book is written by mathematicians, but engineers still can easily implemente many commonly used image processing algorithm, just follow the detailed numerical difference schemes provided in the appendix. ... Read more

Book Description

It has been 13 years since the first edition of Stochastic Integration and Differential Equations, A New Approach appeared, and in those years many other texts on the same subject have been published, often with connections to applications, especially mathematical finance. Yet in spite of the apparent simplicity of approach, none of these books has used the functional analytic method of presenting semimartingales and stochastic integration. Thus a 2nd edition seems worthwhile and timely, though we will no longer call it"a new approach."

The new edition has several significant changes, most prominently the addition of exercises for solution. These are intended to supplement the text, but lemmas needed in a proof are never relegated to the exercises! Many of the exercises have been tested by graduate students at Purdue and Cornell Universities. Chap. 3 has been nearly completely redone, with a new, more intuitive and simultaneously elementary proof of the fundamental Doob-Meyer decomposition theorem, the more general version of the Girsanov theorem due to Lenglart, the Kazamaki-Novikov criteria for exponential local martingales to be martingales, and a modern treatment of compensators. Chap. 4 treats sigma martingales (important in finance theory) and gives a more comprehensive treatment of martingale representation, including both the Jacod-Yor theory and Emery's examples of martingales that actually have martingale representation (thus going beyond the standard cases of Brownian motion and the compensated Poisson process). New topics added include an introduction to the theory of the expansion of filtrations, and an elementary treatment of the Burkholder-Gundy-Fefferman martingale inequalities. Last, there are of course small changes throughout the book. ... Read more

Book Description

This book develops the basic mathematical theory of the finite element method, the most widely used technique for engineering design and analysis. This expanded second edition contains new chapters on additive Schwarz preconditioners and adaptive meshes. New exercises have also been added throughout. The book will be useful to mathematicians as well as engineers and physical scientists. It can be used for a course that provides an introduction to basic functional analysis, approximation theory, and numerical analysis, while building upon and applying basic techniques of real variable theory. Different course paths can be chosen, allowing the book to be used for courses designed for students with different interests. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

a nice introductory book
This book is a very nice introductory book on the subject. It has a very nice presentation of the fundamental issues on finite element theory, such as interpolation theory on Sobolev spaces and variational formulations of elliptic problems. Also, it covers some advanced and more specific subjets such as multigrid methods and mixed methods for fluid mechanics, where it reviews some of the most used techniques to solve the saddle-point problems such as Augmented Lagrangian techniques and penalty methods.

Also, at the end of the book there is a very well written chapter focused on Interpolation operators, where there is a very nice (and very easy to read) presentation of the Sccot-Zhang interpolation operator, and some of the principal results on approximation.

Resuming, it is a very recomendable book in the subjet, specially recomendable for mathematics students interested on finite elements, and researchers in the field. ... Read more

Book Description

Matrix Differential Calculus With Applications in Statistics and Econometrics Revised Edition Jan R. Magnus, CentER, Tilburg University, The Netherlands and Heinz Neudecker, Cesaro, Schagen, The Netherlands " .deals rigorously with many of the problems that have bedevilled the subject up to the present time." - Stephen Pollock, Econometric Theory "I continued to be pleasantly surprised by the variety and usefulness of its contents " - Isabella Verdinelli, Journal of the American Statistical Association Continuing the success of their first edition, Magnus and Neudecker present an exhaustive and self-contained revised text on matrix theory and matrix differential calculus. Matrix calculus has become an essential tool for quantitative methods in a large number of applications, ranging from social and behavioural sciences to econometrics. While the structure and successful elements of the first edition remain, this revised and updated edition contains many new examples and exercises.
* Contains the essentials of multivariable calculus with an emphasis on the use of differentials
* Many new examples and exercises
* Fulfils the need for a unified and self-contained treatment of matrix differential calculus
* Includes new developments in this field
Part I presents a concise, yet thorough overview of matrix algebra, while the second part develops the theory of differentials. The remaining Parts III to VI combine the theory and application of matrix differential calculus providing the practitioner and researcher with both a quick review and a detailed reference. Visit our web page http://www.wiley.com/ ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Bad typesetting reviews are not exaggerating
I have read the bad reviews regarding the typesetting of this book and I thought they were exaggerating. Nevertheless, I have borrowed this book (old edition/hardcover) from the University library and I thought that buying it was worthwile.When I ordered the book I found out that the book quality was even worse than expected. The typesetting is worse than a photocopied book; I even thought that this was not an authentic copy but a cheap one from a Banana country. Nevertheless, when you open to read the book pages are coming out. The hardcover edition price -$300$- is ridiculous. I am a postoctoral fellow in engineering and I cannot afford more than $100 for a book. The $80 dollar price is not justified for that bad typesetting. This is a very helpful book for a graduate engineering student but I doubt that I will recommend it for buying. I will have to think seriously about buying another book from Wiley piblishers.

Too bad!
I was surprised to learn about the poor quality of typesetting in the paperback (second?) edition. I reviewed the book for JASA, when it first appeared, and, over the years, I've used it many many times. It is really a remarkable book, for allof us who need to deal with matrices in our everyday research work.

I was about to buy a second copy of the book, but the hardcover rice is ridiculous (more than $300!!), and I was turned away from buying the paperback edition because of the comments on the bad quality of typesetting.

This is too bad. A book of this stature deserves a better treatment by the publisher!

Very useful book, bad typesetting
the authors provided a really nice treatment on the not-so-popular subject. The presentation is clear and readable. I just want to second the review below : the typesetting quality is inferior to a photocopied book ( or one may feel it's like a book published in 70's)

enormous utility
For some reason, in spite of its enormous utility, matrix differential calculus is oddly absent from standard courses in signal processing and control. The great strength of this text is its focus on the development of sufficient and necessary conditions for constrained/unconstrained minima/maxima. There are good examples regarding maximum likelihood estimation. There are also some useful results regarding the Kronecker product and commutator matrices. The chapter at the end covers specific topics in econometrics. The paperback edition suffers from completely hideous typesetting that is exacerbated by some of the notation. In spite of the fact that the paperback is not cheap, the pages look like they were photocopied. Maybe I just got a bad copy. I don't know if the hardback edition has the same problem.

Excellent, no-nonsense compilation of results
This book is a gem, not so much for the results it contains, but for how it presents them. The authors introduce a compact notation centered on kronecker products and schur products. In addition they present a useful set of operators and identities for manipulating these objects. The result is a pleasing language for mathematical manipulation avoiding to a large extent the "debauchery of indices" that pose a problem in many investigations. This presentation makes the price of the book almost worthwhile. The review of the properties of matrices is compact and reasonably complete. The applications are straightforward and competently presented. ... Read more

Book Description

Maintaining a contemporary perspective, this strongly algebraic-oriented text provides a concrete and readable text for the traditional course in elementary differential equations that science, engineering, and mathematics readers take following calculus.Matters of definition, classification, and logical structure deserve (and receive here) careful attention for the first time in the mathematical experience of many of the readers. While it is neither feasible nor desirable to include proofs of the fundamental existence and uniqueness theorems along the way in an elementary course, readers need to see precise and clear-cut statements of these theorems, and understand their role in the subject. Appropriate existence and uniqueness proofs in the Appendix are included, and referred to where appropriate in the main body of the text. Applications are highlighted throughout the text. These include: What explains the commonly observed lag time between indoor and outdoor daily temperature oscillations?; What makes the difference between doomsday and extinction in alligator populations?; How do a unicycle and a two-axle car react differently to road bumps?; Why are flagpoles hollow instead of solid?; Why might an earthquake demolish one building and leave standing the one next door?; How can you predict the time of next perihelion passage of a newly observed comet?; Why and when does non-linearity lead to chaos in biological and mechanical systems?; What explains the difference in the sounds of a guitar, a xylophone, and a drum? Includes almost 300 computer-generated graphics throughout the text.This text, with enough material for 2 terms, provides a concrete and readable text for the traditional course in elementary differential equations that science, engineering, and mathematics readers take following calculus. ... Read more

Book Description

At last researchers have an inexpensive library of Java-based numeric procedures for use in scientific computation. The first and only book of its kind, A Numeric Library in Java for Scientists and Engineers is a translation into Java of the library NUMAL (NUMerical procedures in Algol 60). This groundbreaking text presents procedural descriptions for linear algebra, ordinary and partial differential equations, optimization, parameter estimation, mathematical physics, and other tools that are indispensable to any dynamic research group.The book offers test programs that allow researchers to execute the examples provided; users are free to construct their own tests and apply the numeric procedures to them in order to observe a successful computation or simulate failure. The entry for each procedure is logically presented, with name, usage parameters, and Java code included. This handbook serves as a powerful research tool, enabling the performance of critical computations in Java. It stands as a cost-efficient alternative to expensive commercial software package of procedural components. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

all the nuts & bolts you need, wrapped in newspaper
A true alternative to astronomically expensive numerical Java libraries. It contains a great collection of various algorithms, explains which one to choose, how to use it and what it does. In addition the Java source code is printed which is reason for the high page numbers and should answer even the most specific questions. Finally, there are many references to classic publications for further reading.

This book provides all the information you'll need to solve most numerical problems (linear algebra, non-linear equations, ordinary differential equations, Fourier transform, special functions, time series,...) but unfortunately barely covers interpolation and approximation (e.g. no splines !). Oh, and the typesetting is a bit rough.

Similar to open source projects, I expected the CD included with the book to contain source, a jar file and javadoc ready to be used. Instead you will find the Java sources (in a single "numal" package) and pre-compiled classes only. Algorithms are invoked via static methods in chapter-based classes such as "Basic", "FFT", "Linear_algebra" etc.
I found the usage of "double[1]" rather than "double" a bit confusing. But fortunately the non primitive data types passed on to these methods are defined via interfaces, so no real restrictions when integrating to your project will apply.

I suspect that the author has strong skills in older programming languages such as Fortran or C which may have influenced his Java style (no offense).
So depending on how high your Java skills and expectations are, you might have to spend a few minutes re-organising and refactoring the sources, running javadoc on it and packing it into a jar.

Summarizing I'd say that I would not like to miss this book as it has saved me many hours implementing the methods by myself. If it also covered splines and presented the code more nicely I would definitely give it the missing extra star. The crucial information is there and at the end, that's what you need, right ?

A book of good value
It is indispensable to have the source code of such a
high quality numerical library to experiment on the PC.

Very useful numerical Java library with source code
This book contains some much needed source code of a comprehensive numerical library in Java. This provides a basis for students and researchers to evaluate different numerical methods. For beginners, the library can be used as a black box for solving a wide range of numerical problems. More experienced users can build new modules based on the existing ones, or modify the source code for experimentation. ... Read more

Book Description

[Man] invented a concept that has since been variously viewed as a vice, a crime, a business, a pleasure, a type of magic, a disease, a folly, a weakness, a form of sexual substitution, an expression of the human instinct. He invented gambling.
Richard Epstein's classic book on gambling and its mathematical analysis covers the full range of games from penny matching, to blackjack and other casino games, to the stock market (including Black-Scholes analysis). He even considers what light statistical inference can shed on the study of paranormal phenomena. Epstein is witty and insightful, a pleasure to dip into and read and rewarding to study. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Disappointing and Often Uninsightful
Some parts are interesting, and the writing can be entertaining, but the book is short on insight and clarity and long on tedious tables and uninterpreted computations.

Buy this if you already know probability and would like to see -some- applications and cute games.

Don't buy it if you want insight into particular games; especially, the blackjack and bridge sections (and meager poker section) have virtually no value.

I am a graduate student in mathematics, and enjoy probability theory and games: I should be the ideal audience.
The math is no problem for me, but much is boring, and much time is spent writing huge tables without giving much insight.

Research articles in statistics are easier to read, and far more informative.

The math background is awful: if you don't already know it, don't learn it here.
[Instead, see "The Cartoon Guide to Statistics", or Feller's "Intro to Probability"]
The writing is willfully obscure and florid (though, admittedly,
entertaining): gymkhana, panjandrum, kubiagenesis?

My main objection is the lack of insight: the author does (mostly) correct computations and statements but seldom shows much depth of understanding and rarely conveys any to the reader.

Rather than answering questions or giving examples that convey the meaning of the theory, how it lets you understand questions, Epstein does many unillustrative examples.

This book won't teach you to understand games and gambling, which it could do, and should do.

At best, it provides a basis from which you can (after too much work) begin to understand games. This is not because the subject is that hard (at least not what Epstein covers) -- it's because the material is undigested and Epstein is a poor expositor.

If you want to get something out of this book, be prepared to do the work that Epstein hasn't, and to look at more modern and insightful references.

Here's an example: how many times do you need to shuffle a deck before it's essentially random? Very natural question, of big interest in gambling. Epstein gives a very slick argument, one of the gems of the book (measure entropy of a shuffle) that you need at least 5 shuffles -- but beyond that just writes some equations for 2 shuffles of a 4-card deck and says that a computer would help, and instead tabulates that 18 perfect shuffles of a 58-card deck return it to the original state.

The rest of the book is like this: some question begging for study, perhaps an insight, and then irrelevant and pedantic computations and tables.

There are gems in here (it's a grab-bag), and the writing is often amusing, but it's a frustrating read: it could be so much better.

Very Hard to Find Info
Don't read this book if you're a poker player who knows how to divide your outs by number of unseen cards but never took any serious math courses. This is a serious mathematical treatment of gambling.

If you want a more rigorous treatment of the general statistical theory involved in gambling (in general, not just for poker) then this is a book you MUST read. Are you a full or part-time mathematician? Are you someone who took some math courses and is interested in learning about how to mathematically describe different games that involve gambling? Are you wanting to write a computer program to simulate statistical games based on solid mathematics and understand your program? This book is something you don't want to overlook if you answered "yes" to any of those questions. If you answered with a resounding "no" to all of them and are just interested in a particular game and aren't mathematically inclined then you want to look elsewhere.

Kubeiagenesis
To the reader who was frustrated by the title of Chapter one, 'Kubeiagenesis', and could not find a definition.

-genesis, is first defined as a suffix, meaning 'origin'.
Kubeia comes from The New Testament Greek Lexicon.

Kubeia (koo-bi'-ah). Definition 1. dice playing 2. metaphor for the deception of men, because dice players sometimes cheated and defrauded their fellow players.

Translated to english in Ephesians as both 'sleight' (KJV) and 'trickery' (NAS).

Clearly, Kubeiagenesis is meant to be the origin of sleight, trickery, and deception.

That it is the first word of the text may be to inform the reader that what follows may be nonintuitive -- but is well defined, documented, and referenced. You may find yourself reading several of the referenced texts before completing the book if you are going to absorb it all.

This book is the Bible on the subject. The author brilliantly interweaves relevant stories, and shows connections to disciplines outside mathematics and gaming. If you simply want answers and don't care how they were calculated, try some of the other texts offered. If you want to understand the subject -- buy this book.

For what it is, it's a great book
I would mostly echo the positive reviewers of this book. This book is indeed a classic in the field of probability theory and applied statistics. It is also a great book for people who want a serious, math-intensive treatment of gambling.

I am writing this review mostly to deal with the criticism that this book has received from some of the other reviewers. I would agree with those critics that this book is not for the faint of heart. This book does require a certain comfort level with mathematics.

However, I don't think it's all that fair to bash this book for those alleged faults. Mr. Epstein's book does not pretend to be anything other than a serious treatment (and a serious treatment would require a great deal of mathematical analysis) of gambling. In fact, the serious analysis of gambling is what gave rise to the mathematical disciplines of probability and statistics. Mr. Epstein is (was) an engineer and the book makes that very clear. FAIR criticism would be based on citing problems with the book based on what the book was INTENDED to be. UNfair criticism of this book is based on what the mathematically challenged reader HOPED it would be.

BTW, I do agree with the math-challenged critics that there are some good books out there dealing with a more math-oriented approach to gambling that were written with the intention of appealing to people who wanted to make use of such information and wanted a lighter touch on the math. Among them are the *Theory of Poker* by Skalansky and the other books mentioned on this page.

Not Worth the Price
When it was first written, I am sure this was a great primer. Now, there are many more texts examining questions this book tackles--try GAMBLING THEORY by Mason Malmth for blackjack, sports betting, horseracing, and bankroll control.

I would recommend specific texts on the games you plan to beat rather than this general text. Good luck. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is an introductory graduate-level textbook on the theory of smooth manifolds. Its goal is to familiarize students with the tools they will need in order to use manifolds in mathematical or scientific research--- smooth structures, tangent vectors and covectors, vector bundles, immersed and embedded submanifolds, tensors, differential forms, de Rham cohomology, vector fields, flows, foliations, Lie derivatives, Lie groups, Lie algebras, and more. The approach is as concrete as possible, with pictures and intuitive discussions of how one should think geometrically about the abstract concepts, while making full use of the powerful tools that modern mathematics has to offer. Along the way, the book introduces students to some of the most important examples of geometric structures that manifolds can carry, such as Riemannian metrics, symplectic structures, and foliations. The book is aimed at students who already have a solid acquaintance with general topology, the fundamental group, and covering spaces, as well as basic undergraduate linear algebra and real analysis. John M. Lee is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he regularly teaches graduate courses on the topology and geometry of manifolds. He was the recipient of the American Mathematical Society's Centennial Research Fellowship and he is the author of two previous Springer books, Introduction to Topological Manifolds (2000) and Riemannian Manifolds: An Introduction to Curvature (1997). ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent, lucid book on manifolds
Topics are explained with exception