Customer Reviews

Advanced Engineering Mathematics

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I am currently using this massive book as it is the required text for my Engineering Math I course (MS Mech Eng). I heartily agree with others who claim to find this book is not thorough enough in the subjects it covers. BUT, out of curiosity I have delved into the book and studied the chapters covering material I am familiar with I saw in previous courses (Diff Equations, 4 Calculus courses, Control Systems, Linear Systems, Numerical Methods) and I have to say... it is an ALL encompassing book, and the tremendous amount of material in it has is a credit to itself. Do not criticize this book because you failed in understanding a subject when using it, I myself am currenly a victim of this situation. Go find a book which treats only the topic (Laplace, Fourier, Linear Algebra, etc.) you're covering now, study it, and return it. Keep Kreyszig's as a handy reference. Mathematics is an extensive science, this "handbook" for us beginners is one of the best there is. Question: Did any of you Mechanical Engineers use MARKS' Handbook for your Fluid Mechanics course, or Shigley's Machine Design Handbook for learning how to design gears?

This book is great as a reference. You are trying a problem in Complex Analysis, and you are stuck, and you want to recall the Cauchy Integral Theorem for multiply connected domains, and thats when you need an excellent resource like this one. Flip a few pages, get what you want, and get back to the problem.
BUT, if you want to LEARN things, if you want to know WHAT a multiple connected domain is, what the various theorems are, then NO....Kreyszig isnt what you need.
You need a textbook in Complex Analysis then, not a All-in-One reference manual, which is what Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Kreyszig actually is.
I will give it three stars, because it really is very comprehensive, an excellent addition to a Math Majors library. Or for that matter, to even an engineers library, but it certainly cannot be used to learn things for the first time.
Its a very good reference text, assuming you have learnt your ABCs from somewhere else. Although it covers a lot, it doesnt cover things in a way that would motivate students to learn new ideas or concepts. Its a mathematical cook-book, its only got the array of techniques in it, not the theory and the motivation.
For those, you need to try the traditional textbooks in the different areas.

This book is an all-encompassing book dealing with all (I am not joking) topics of advanced engineering mathematics required by practicing engineers and students. This is not meant to be used as an introductory text during a math course but as a reference manual for practical applications once you go beyond your math course. If you are looking for a comprehensive math book with consistent notation and style of writing, look no further-get this book.

This book is designed to be taught as part of a year long survey course covering those topics in Mathematics most often used by engineers. It is not, nor does claim to be, a definative text of all engineering mathematics. This book is generally used as part of a review course in first year graduate level engineering mathematics. It is expected that you have seen these topics before in a formal course.

If you are looking for a book with a more in depth treatment of one or all of the subjects covered in this book, look for something published by Springer Verlag and expect to pay out a lot more money.

If you are looking for a good introductory book then look for the Engineering Mathematics books by K.A. Stroud. They are elementary in there treatment and leave the proofs for the student to do. However, no formal knowledge of the subject is required and the reader is introduced to each subject in a simple easy to read format.

Finally, A good overall book for upper level undergraduate and first year graduate students in any science discipline is Basic Training in Mathematics by Shankar.

This is the book I used as a student and a graduate student and it is still the book I use as a reference book as a doctoral student! It is the complete reference textbook for any engineering mathematics student (and any student of applied mathematics). Though it is more difficult to use than Stroud (hence only 4 stars) it covers each topic in much more depth and also covers topics which Stroud does not even in his Advanced volume. I would recommend using Stroud first to learn the topic and then this book to master it. For the more advanced topics such as partial differential equations and advanced vector calculus this book is matchless. A must have reference book for any engineering/physical sciences student/researcher.

It is not unusual for those who failed to pass (or understand) their courses to look for cheap scapegoats. Some have blamed their lecturers, and some have blamed their textbooks. But I am not swayed!
Thus, despite all the negative rantings some reviewers have labelled against this "Advanced Engineering Mathematics", I will advise you to see for yourself. This book is superb! Erwin Kreyszig should be honoured with a twenty-one gun salute, for compiling this outstanding compendium.
The way this book dissected Numerical Methods, Differential Equation, and Vector Calculus, will rouse envy in many academic circles. The same applies to its unsurpassed analyses of Oscillation Matrices, Quantum Symmetries, and Linear Algebra. I wonder why all those condemnations! In fact, I will advise those complainants to go back to primary school.
As its name depicts, this text is an advanced book, and not an introductory one. Still, its author took the necessary pains in tabling an uncomplicated presentation. I will, with great pleasure, recommend it to any Engineering or Science student who needs an advanced mathematics textbook.

The popular recommended 'text book' that this is, it really takes on a task too large to condense into some 1100 pages. You just can't do that. Okay, if you're great at Math and want to revise yuor concepts of have a quick reference, this is a decent book. Well, much better than decent. BUT, and here's what matters, if you want to UNDERSTAND what engineering math is about, you absolutely have to get text books for each of the subjects Kreyszig deals with: Gilbert Strang's Linear Algebra, DiPrima/Boyce for ODE and so on...this book won't get you there. Having said that, no book can do that!

Having worked thru' the Kreyszig book as an ugrad in EE, back in the late 70s in India, and then reading the various editions of the same book by Prof. Kreyszig, I am appalled at the mindless apathy for the book as shown in the Amazon website by some readers. For a lack of a better word, I believe that most of these readers have a very warped up sense of applied mathematics - that is mathematics as it applies to solution of engineering problems. Kreyszig's book is a goldmine of information, and its latest edition contains a whole slew of carefully chosen problems that are worked out plus homework exercises to aid the student in mastering the necessary analytical techniques essential to solving problems.

I have observed that of late in USA there is a lot of acerbic hostility towards mathematics. Most of the readers (including the teacher and the taught) express their displeasure if they cannot " sell " mathematics like some commodities in a grocery store. The students on the other hand, being too pampered by the existing escapism in a society are reluctant to accept the rigors of any mathematical training and hence are most unhappy if a math. text demands some discipline in terms of focussed concentration and thinking. It is excepected and unfortunate that such critics shall continue to judge such well-written and comprehensive texts on applied mathematics (such as Kreyszig) most boring and their displeasure is a substitute for more cogent and incisive analytical review.

I used Kreyszig's "Advanced Engineering Mathematics" and Thomas and Finney's "Calculus and Analytic Geometry" to cover most of the first year mathematics requirement of a physics undergrad. Both were fascinating and opened my eyes to how enjoyable and satisfying the study of mathematics can be. Both books and particularly Kreyszig's, require a strong background in high school Mathematics (a background which, I suspect from reading the American reader comments, is not provided by the American High School system). If a student is not adequately prepared, then of course they will struggle with this text. However, to blame Kreyszig's book is not the problem, but rather the system that left its students ill prepared to study it.

I recognize that this is the "bible" for engineering math, but I never found it stellar for any single topic. Its treatment of simple topics such as first and second order ODEs and linear algebra was certainly satisfactory, but when more advanced topics are presented there is simply too little coverage. I found it particularly weak in the coverage of PDEs and series solutions of differential equations.

In general a simple presentation of the material is made, and a simple example is given, but you never understand the guts of the process, so when a slightly more complex problem arises you don't know quite how to proceed. The simple example will work out magically that X and Y converge instantly, but then you try to work a problem where X or Y are different and you were never given enough information as to determine which one is the driving part of the process.

Tolerable text, and I understand why its used given its broad scope, but I second the "jack of all trades, master of none" review. You're better off buying three texts that actually present the material well than one that does it poorly.