| | Supply 8053.0254.9 |  | Author: Nagle
Publisher: Benjamin-Cummings Publishing Co.,Subs. of Addison Wesley Longman,US
Category: Book
List Price: $25.13
Buy Used: $3.00
You Save: $22.13 (88%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 1975683
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 624
ISBN: 0805368108
EAN: 9780805368109
ASIN: 0805368108
Publication Date: January 1, 1986
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Legendary independent bookstore online since 1994. Reliable customer service and no-hassle return policy.
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Product Description
Fundamentals of Differential Equations, Sixth Edition is designed for a one-semester sophomore or junior-level course. Fundamentals of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems, Fourth Edition, contains enough material for a two-semester course that covers and builds on boundary-value problems. These tried-and-true texts help students understand the methods and concepts they will need to successfully complete engineering courses. The new texts retain the features that have made previous editions successful, while integrating recent advances in teaching and learning. The Fundamentals of Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems version consists of the main text plus three additional chapters (Eigenvalue Problems and Sturm-Liouville Equations; Stability of Autonomous Systems; and Existence and Uniqueness Theory).
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Great condition September 15, 2008
I got just what I expected in pretty good condition. It was definitely a bargain!
 A very good textbook, just not quite right for me January 13, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As an instructor at a small college, I am called upon to teach nearly every course in the mathematics curriculum. Therefore, I spend a great deal of time trolling for textbooks, as I never know from one year to the next what I will be teaching. I examined this book for possible adoption as a text for a single semester course in differential equations. My conclusion was that it is acceptable, but since it contains enough material for a two semester sequence, it must be assigned a rank lower than those that cover only a single semester.
However, I do strongly approve of the pedagogical approach taken by the authors. Their use of blue highlighting for the important formulas is eye-catching and effective. As I scanned through the book it was sometimes easier to determine the topic of a section by looking for the equations that were in blue. The exposition made the material easy to follow and the many worked and varied examples make the coverage complete.
I was also pleased to see the occasional theorem with proof. While courses in differential equations are largely, "give the technique(s), here is how to use it", it is still an upper division math course and an occasional proof is certainly reasonable and effective. The authors also include a short set of technical writing exercises at the end of the chapters and there are plenty of exercises with answers to the odd-numbered ones included in an appendix. While I don't think that I would ever make use of the technical writing exercises, I am sure that there are others who would take advantage of the opportunity.
In conclusion, even though I was impressed with this book, I doubt that I would adopt it. The differences between differential equation texts tend to be rather small, so the fact that this book is suitable for a two-semester sequence is enough for me to continue to look elsewhere.
Fundamentals of Differential Equations, Sixth Edition November 11, 2006
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
the book was in perfect condition just like the seller said so.
 so poorly written June 27, 2006
1 out of 11 found this review helpful
Wow, the examples are absolutely putrid. I am so disgusted with this book, universities are probably given some seriously cut rate deals on this book to use it. One simple example of the poor quality of this book is the following:
page 513
"...diagonal matrices, which are square matrices with only zero (0) entries off the main diagonal (that is, a(ij)=0 if i does not equal j); and column vectors, which are nx1 matrices. For example:
A=
(3,4,1
2,6,5
0,1,4)
B=
(3,0,0
0,0,0
0,0,7)...
Then A is a square matrix, B is a diagonal maxtrix....."
WAIT BACK UP! I thought if you were a diagonal matrix then you had zeros for all numbers except for the diagonal....remember if you have i rows and j columns in a square matrix then the only time i=j is along the diagonal and didn't the book already says that a(ij)=0 if i doesn't equal j? So why does B(2,2) have a 0? Is it because not all values in the diagonal can be 0 or is it because there is a typo? I don't know but if I pull out my linear algebra book or perhaps surf the web I can find out...but isn't that a waste of my time trying to make sure these people are just using poor notation or pressed the wrong key? I think so. I certainly would never use this book again nor would I ever use it as a reference. I actually went and picked up another book for diff eq that I use along side this terrible book, and the only reason I keep this diff eq book by nagle is so I can refer back to the table of contents for topics when my teacher says which chapters the test are on.
Pretty Standard Textbook May 26, 2005
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I just finished a class that used this textbook, and I had no real problems with it. I've seen some really poor reviews on this book which I think are unwarranted. This may not be the best book around, but it is certainly not the worst. Put simply, this is an average textbook. It is neither outstanding, nor terrible. I did find the wording awkward in places. For example, Theorem 1 regarding existence and uniqueness is stated as,
===============================================================
"Given the initial value problem,
dy/dx = f(x,y), y(xo) = yo,
assume that f and the partial derivative of f with respect to y are continuous functions in a rectangle
R = { (x,y): a < x < b, c < y
that contains the point (xo, yo). Then the initial value problem has a unique solution phi(x) in some interval x0-delta < x < x0 + delta, where delta is a positive number."
================================================================
Using the phrase "assume that..." seems to completely de-emphasize the salient point which is that,
================================================================
IF f and the partial derivative of f with respect to y are continuous functions in a rectangle...
THEN the initial value problem has a unique solution phi(x) in some interval....
================================================================
But this is a fairly minor complaint, and mostly just a matter of personal taste. I am grateful that I had a good instructor though, as he was able to pull out the important points that were not obvious from the text.
On the plus side, the book has an excellent Student's Solutions Manual by Victor Maymeskul. For the most part, all the odd numbered problems were thoroughly worked and explained. I would highly recommend getting the solutions manual.
Bottom line, if this is a textbook for a class, don't worry about it. The book will be just fine, and a good instructor will be able to use it effectively. If you want a book for self study, this may not be the best at clearly explaining concepts, but at least with the solution manual you will have lots of practice problems you can work and check. For self-study, you might check out "Ordinary Differential Equations" by Morris Tenenbaum and Harry Pollard. I have not used it extensively, but it seems to be quite clearly written, and has generally received good reviews.
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