Customer Reviews

Introduction to Linear Algebra (5th Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book was poorly written and organized. It might be OK if you only use it as a reference. But if you have to use it for your class, you'd better find another textbook for your second source.

This review is of the 2nd edition printed in '89. I bought this book off the shelf at SCU as a review source. The texts chosen at SCU have a tendency to lean toward the practical applications side and away from the theoretical. Johnson's text was no exception. Practical aspects of limitations of solution methods implimented on computers are discussed. A bit dry or lacking in motivation but otherwise a good coverage of the subject matter with answers to odd numbered problems at the back. My only real criticism of the text was the authors' tendency to introduce some important concepts in the problem sets themselves rather than covering them in the main body of the chapter. This is awkward if you want to use the book as a reference.

So far this book has decided to make its own notation for things rather than use what everybody else uses. My professor is constantly having to tell us the difference between "The books version" and "The real version" I thought it was maybe just my professor that was different but I have an older linear algebra book that agrees with my professor. So I think its just the book that's different. I cant even use it to study for the test because everything is written different than what my professor wants. Its really annoying.

it is a good book, dad buy it for my college. it has a dent at the corner but ok

I use this book as my Univ textbook, but this one is too bad to learn from.

1. lack of example. example for only super-easy&basic problems.

2. Too expensive for it quality

3. NEVER buy its student solution manual
(the solution manual contains odd number's answers, but no explanation. It's the same as the answers in the end of the book.)

Only a week into my linear algebra course, but the first few sections of this book at least have proved very helpful and articulate. Will post a more thorough review once I have more experience with the book.

*UPDATE*
Finished my linear algebra course, and this book was phenomenal! Very clear examples and mostly logical progression of ideas. Would recommend to any friends taking linear algebra, and will keep as a reference for years to come. Great book!

I'm very disappointed with this solution manual. It does not explain the answer well. The writer only add a few sentences to the answers which can be found on the back of the textbook! The way the explanation is being written is also very confusing!!! Don't buy this book!!!

My review in response to the others:

This is a college text, intended for approximately the 2nd year/ beginning of 3rd, depending on when you take this class. Don't buy? Most colleges require texts (although I suppose you could be a maverick) not only for the problem set, but because the lectures closely follow the book's presentation, making your own notes the best supplement. That said, I have often found multiple books handy --most math libraries are vastly under used. Schaum's Outline is a good supplement for most any math class. You can get along fine with just this book, although some of it may be confusing --particularly chapter 3, which can only be described as "crystal clearly confusing." Not necessarily the content, but rather how it was presented as "too step-by-step" and less "here is how it works". The book does adequately cover all the basics, and depending on your level and understanding, some chapters may in fact be too basic. Some chapters will probably be skipped.

I too was frustrated that in several cases, key concepts and even whole parts of theorems, were left as exercises (and then referred to in other chapters). This is inconvenient, to say the least, if the problem is not prescribed and the class moves rapidly around the subject, or say your class skips certain chapters and a theorem is referred to later as "see exercise 3x in chapter 3", or if you don't figure it correctly! I agree that the "study guide" was not that helpful in most cases, as it was mostly a more elaborate presentation of the back-of-the-book answers, but in the cases where it was helpful, it was almost invaluable. For instance, many problems are ambiguous, or not very clearly stated, making it useful to be able to see what exactly constitutes the answer. For lack of a better way of putting it, some problems were laid out so poorly that they had to be reverse engineered.

The authors give a good introductory course, which is what the cover promises. The book is intended to be dry, as this is supposed to be a big boy class and a departure from basic foundation math like calculus and such. However, the book starts off very, very basic, and then in chapter 3, becomes more abstract and theoretical --again, for me it was the most difficult chapter because the material wasn't laid out well. Chapter four is more applications, which is pretty much the focus from there on in some fashion or other. The information you learn in this class become very powerful problem solving tools in later ones. Some stuff you may be able to use right away as a shortcut to the long hard way you have been doing it, while other stuff presents itself later.

This is probably the most useful book I ever bought for college. Even though I thought I would never need it again, I really regret selling my copy too soon.

AAAAAARRR!

It's really linear pre-algebra, except that its appropriate for high school students. I thought it was a "high school only" book the whole time I owned it, too.

To be fair, I bought it after reading the Dutch Book, -Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications, 2nd Edition-by M. de Berg, et al. The Dutch Book was great, but I thought I needed a stepping stone before more dedicated linear programming. Still, this linear math book was unspeakably filthy. Am sorry?

While I have endured through college algebras and other such forms of applied analysis before, I never seen anything this baaaad before, either. Sorry.

Believing it to be a college textbook, I bought it right alongside -Introduction to Linear Optimization-, by Dimitris Bertsimas and John N. Tsitsiklis, an Athena Scientific book. Surprisingly, the Athena Scientific bests it hands down!

By the way..."Introduction to Linear Optimization" remains one of my favorite book, while I donated the pre-algebra to Goodwill some weeks ago (Just to compare).

The book deserves at two stars for being readable. However, I posted this review so that others would be forewarn and so not wastes the resources which they could better use elsewhere.