Customer Reviews

Introduction to Dynamic Systems: Theory, Models, and Applications

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I studied this book for two semesters as a doctoral student, and consider it the best mathematical textbook ever written. Luenberger writes concisely and with great clarity and elegance. His notation is crisp and easy to follow. The book begins with basic concepts of matrix algebra and dynamic equations, and then builds step-by-step to encompass an enormously broad set of applications. The examples are drawn from all over the map, and are great fun to explore. This is a truly mind-expanding text.

Thomas P. Lyon, Associate Professor, Business Economics and Public Policy, Indiana University

This introduction to dynamic systems is presented with an algebraic formalism which makes things clear and concise. All concepts are explained intuitively as well as formally, having in mind the objective of making things clear. Few books exhibit such a good approach and other reviewers are right when they emphasize the highly pedagogical quality of Luenberger's books ! This is no overstatement.

The advantage of using this algebraic formulation lies in the simplicity as well as the understandability of the state-space approach, which is best explained in those terms. Most books assume that everyone knows what a state space is without explicitly showing what it is really about. This book just uses the reverse assumption, in that you're not asssumed to know everything before getting into it.

Only some basic knowledge in algebra (undergraduate-level) is required but even without experience in algebraic formalism, it is possible to go through the content thanks to the important number of examples and the intuitive explanations.

A must-read !

This "2001 edition" (according to Amazon) was actually copyrighted in 1979. While the book remains very useful, prospective consumers may wish to consider a good used copy in order to save some money.

Although the publication date is misleading, at least Wiley correctly prints the original copyright date within its "new" texts (there are other examples of this practice). Springer-Verlag performs still greater magic. In "Linear and Nonlinear Programming", also by Luenberger, Springer decided to print the copyright date as 2003 instead of 1984, thus giving the impression that the text contains an up-to-date treatment of the subject matter. If I were buying a copy of "Green Eggs and Ham", I would not care about an incorrect copyright date. However, where technical subjects are concerned, this practice borders on fraud (in my view). It is a deliberate attempt to deceive its customers into believing that they are purchasing something more current and relevant than is actually the case.

David Luenberger has a very polished writing style, so much so I could imagine he could be entrusted to write the country's constitution.
This is one of the reasons I am drawn back to this book. Another great aspect of this book is the motivation for the mathematics, you never wonder why this or that was introduced. There are varied examples that come up and get dealt with several times in this book. In other words this builds up your intuition.
However you have to realise that this is not a reference book, it's a book that has to be read from start to finish and the reader has to go with the flow. There are times in which the proofs and definitions are glossed over, so this could be a reason to remove a star from the rating, but a conscientious reader could fill in the missing details with patience and some hard thinking.
All in all, a good book for self study which requires very little prior knowledge (just high school mathematics and basic calculus) and which gives you just enough of the mathematics to take you where the author wants to.

This book provides an excellent way to learn linear algebra by using it to derive the properties of linear dynamic systems. It also includes a good introduction to nonlinear systems and control theory. There are many classic examples and a wealth of challenging exercises. My first exposure to it was auditing Prof. Luenberger's course as a Visiting Scholar (NOAA fellow) at Stanford in 1977. At that time the book was still in the developmental stage as mimeographed notes. What it does not cover is statistics and especially the nonlinear regression needed to adjust dynamical models to fit data. And there is nary a word about numerical analysis or computer methods, which are essential for modeling non-trivial systems. It also was too early to pick up on the chaos fad a decade later. All in all, I can say that this book inspired me to do more work in dynamic systems and it can still do the same for both students and established scientists and engineers.The Art of Modeling Dynamic Systems: Forecasting for Chaos, Randomness and Determinism (Dover Books on Mathematics)

The economic application examples are interesting for engineering students.