Customer Reviews

Differential Equations.

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

As a differential equations instructor I used Boyce and DiPrima for many years. Its a good, solid presentation of differential equations and a great reference. However, I was always disappointed that my students ended up with no "feel" for differential equations. Also I became convinced that more methods were needed for nonlinear differential equations. After using a couple of other books which seemed to be slanted toward more qualitative approaches I came across Blanchard's book. I used it as a textbook for my class for several years now and I have found it to be a near perfect match to my goals. Some consider it wordy but I appreciate the motivation and insight the authors try to bring to the concepts. As a result it is not a good reference but as a textbook it is great. There are plenty of graphical tools. Quite suprising to me is how much the book illuminates DE's by simply analyzing the components of the DE, even before any solution is attempted. These features, along with some integrated applications, gives students much more of the "feel" for differential equations I have been looking for.

As a recent differential equations student, I have mixed feelings about this book. I did thoroughly read those portions of the book covered by my instructor, and I did learn enough from it to get an A in the class. So I'll concede that it does a fairly good job as a textbook. In fact, I found it relatively easy to understand, which surprised me given the subject. However, the book has two serious shortcomings.

First, it's too verbose. The authors probably could have cut the size of this book in half without sacrificing any of its clarity or utility; in fact, they would likely have improved upon both had they done so. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that it's boring, it's just too long for a student in a hurry.

The second shortcoming is its questionable value as a reference book. Most math books with which I'm familiar have extensive indexes, and do a good job of highlighting important concepts and formulas. This book does neither. The index for this 786 page book is just over nine pages long. That might not sound bad, but many of the entries refer back to specific examples and homework problems with arcane names like "Magic Fingers", "Glass Harmonica", and "Robo-lobster", even while many key words were omitted. To make matter worse, the authors (according to their preface for students) made it a point not to mark important material in a way that would make it stand out. They also wrote many of their more advanced examples in a way that forces students to derive the intermediate steps on their own. This is arguably educational, as it forces students to practice earlier material while they're reading, but I can only imagine the hell it's going to put me through when I have to refer back to the book years from now.

In short, if you have a lot of time on your hands, this is a great book from which to learn differential equations. However, it's a terrible reference book, and nearly impossible to skim. In fact, it's even hard to study from.

I am an instructor teaching an introductory differential equations class using this book. Regrettably, the book is more of an extra weight to carry than a heplful tool.
Yet it is not so obvious to see why. A lot of the explonations are rather well done,
the examples are quite well chosen and constantly, th authors are trying to generate
a certain intuition in the reader.
I suppose the problem is that it is a full blooded ripoff textbook. It costs a whopping
$125 and therefore, it must have almost 800 pages, a shiny expensive looking
hardcover and a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM contains "Maple applet" like tools, that
come with huge drawbacks: often you can only choose the parameters in an equation in a very small interval and there is no normal way to print out any of the
graphics. You have to do a screen dump and then crop out the output screen of
these tools. Most freeware has more functionality.
To conclude, I suppose that my dislike for this book is mainly generated by the
fact that it has all the flaws of a textbook in todays perverted textbook market:
<ul>
<li>overpriced
<li>comes with a semi-useless CD-rom
<li>explanations grotesquely drawn out, e.g. the basic theory of linear systems of
differential takes about 80 pages
<li>core concepts and ideas are freely mixed with tangential remarks and colorful
"faits divers" making no distinction between them whatsoever; when seeing diff. eq. for the first time you'll be as confused as humanly possible
</ul>
Finally, I would like to end with a quote from the "Note to the Student" in the book:
"This book is probably different from most of your previous mathematics texts.
If you thumb through it, you will see that there are very few boxed formulas, no margin, notes and very few n-step procedures. We wrote the book this way because
we think that you are now at a point in your education were you should be learning
to identify and work effectively with the mathematics inherent in everyday life."
Can you believe this arrogance? This attitude is fine if you write a book for scientists and engineers to read by the fireplace on a cold winter evening while sipping from a glass of earthy and robust wine from the Bordeaux or Sud-Est regions, but not if you actually write it with students in mind, students that are going through their first diff. eq. class.
In short, as a reference it is useless, as a study guide it is mediocre at best, as "science leisure" book it is quite acceptable. But then, that would never fetch $125 on the free market.

This is an extremely poor book. It's a bad future reference, because it never summarizes topics. And I have found that I constantly need to review Diff Eq for studying Engineering. It has few examples, and examples refer to previous examples in the book, so readers are constantly jumping around the book to understand examples.

This book usually skips many steps in its examples, and students in my class started to notice that the book was just giving answers as Maple spits them out, which is useless. The solutions manual and back of the book also look like a Maple job with typos, so many of the answers in the solutions manual and back of the book have incorrect constants, or entirely incorrect answers.

LOTS AND LOTS of the book's problems require you to use these stupid RealBasic programs that come on a CD. These programs do not even work very well (e.g. if you enter +- for some reason, which is easy to do, it totally ignores the number or variable which should be subtracted), and the CD's programs are not very easy to understand.

The book uses WAY too many graphical methods which should only be used in HELPING understand the topics. Graphical methods are nearly useless for the Science and Engineering majors trying to use this book.

I don't like this book; it's like most undergraduate differential equations books. It moves slowly yet doesn't explain things in enough depth.

The order in which topics are presented is chaotic; one moment one is using an analytic technique and then the next moment the book switches into discussion of qualitative methods; the reader never gets a feeling of mastering one or the other. It's hard to skip around in the book because it's hard to sort out which material builds on previous material.

The book presents diffeq as a chaotic, hodge-podge subject, which might be accurate, but this leaves the reader confused and without an overall picture of what diffeq is.

Relative to the volume and cost of this text, you will learn very little from it. Among the "big" undergrad texts I prefer Boyce and DiPrima, although only slightly. The best introductory books on differential equations are from the Springer-Verlag series, in my opinion: check out the text by Braun or the other one by Hubbard...both are listed in my reviews.

Not a bad book, but it could be improved. The main problem with it is that it's got too much waffle. There is so much text and the density of ideas is so low that easy concepts are spread over pages. In my opinion, a couple of good sentences is better than a couple of pages.

I used this book in a 2003 summer course in DE, and found it to be a wonderful introduction to the subject. I am not sure what some of the other people meant by saying it wasn't for math majors- I am one and found it wonderful. Not everything needs to be concise, (I gave Rudin's book five stars too BTW, so I AM a fan of some concise books).
It gave diverse examples of applications from all over--physics, EECS, ecology, biology, etc. The CD-Rom is a great learning tool. Ultimately analytic techniques are NOT what DE is about, and this book tries to show the student how to use qualitative and numerical methods early on. Anyone who wants to know DE must become familiar with numerics and the qualitative way of analyzing the equations.
This book will show you how to THINK about DE, and not how to mindlessly attack an equation based on its form.
This is the intro ODE book to which all others ought be compared.

If one wants an analytic reference just buy a cheap used copy of any of the countless DE cookbooks out there (I own a Shaums).

Normally I get the homework from the professor and that is usually the only time I crack open any textbook. However, with this book I was able to enjoy the authors' humor and clear description of the material. It is true that the answers in the back of the book are not very helpful, but I think I think the book is written well enough to help you get to the right answer. Furthermore, the CD that comes with the book is not compatable with Mac OS X, but if your University has access to Maple, Mathematica, or Matlab there is no real loss in not being able to use the CD. I would disagree with one of the book reviews that graphical solutions are not important to science majors. Analytical solutions are extremelly important to science and that is why this book is heavy on the graphical solutions, and as a physicist I find these problems and examples the most useful.

Great for learning. Poor for reference.

This book is unique. Most differential equations textbooks simply provide formulae for different types of problems, but you don't really see the big picture. This book lets you see the big picture, but omits many of the most useful formulae that you may need in your career. This for that. It would be nice to see a book with the best of both worlds, but if you simply want to learn and understand the topic, this book is the way to go. Also, there is a good emphasis on qualitative and numerical techniques. Students often feel like they get less out of a mathematics class when qualitative and numerical techniques are emphasised over more analytic approaches. However, those of us who have worked in the "real world" know that the qualitative and numerical techniques are probably even more important. I have worked as a research statistician and my research areas emphasise computing. When I'm presented with real problems and real data (which, in my career, usually comes in large, unmanageable quantities), do I usually pull out my notebook and tackle the problem in a very precise manner, working out an exact solution? No, quite often I cannot realistically do that. Now I'll admit that I don't use much from this particular field on the job, but it still applies. Moving on, I must also mention that the book does a very good job at explaining these qualitative and numerical techniques in addition to things that are more analytic, although it is sometimes a little too verbose.

Regarding applications, the book covers a lot of fields and does put a big emphasis on applications. Physics, biology (especially population growth models), and electrical/computer engineering receive the most treatment. Overall, I would say that the book does an excellent job at including plenty of applications and choosing meaningful ones.

I don't have much to say about the exercises. Most aren't too contrived and they mixed up the difficulty fairly well. However, I would have liked to see more "hard" problems.

In summary, I'd recommend that you pick up a different book if you need a reference for work or research, but pick this one up if you actually want to learn and UNDERSTAND the basics of differential equations.

I have been teaching differential eequations for over 20 years so am very familiar with the "traditional" approach along with the more "modern" treatment. I have been using this text in my courses for several semesters now and really like it. Finally students can get a real feel for the topic which is/was completely absent from more traditional texts. Frankly, the traditional approach gives one the impression that differential equations (at this level) is simply a collection of party tricks. Nothing could be further from the truth!!

I have discovered that a different kind of student excels with this format; one who is not afraid to actually think about the material - what a refreshing change from the common, mindless "crank and grind" student approach!! Sadly, the latter group doesn't really learn any mathematics, just how to calculate - a task computers handle much better!!

The problems are fine and allow considerable classroom discussion and flexibility. The CD (DETools) has some shortcomings but you can't beat it for the price! The topic is fundamentally geometric in nature and much can be learned from playing with DETools.

Some reviewers complained about the numerical aspect of the text. Having worked as an industrial mathematician, I must say that more, rather than less, about numerical techniques would be good. In the real world, forget analytic methods (they simply don't apply) and reach for RK4 and better.

If you're looking for a text to use in your DE class, try this one. One warning, you can never go back!!