Customer Reviews

Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction (with CD-ROM)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an excellent linear algebra textbook. Even if you just wanted to learn more about the subject, I can't imagine a better introduction. I've taken many math courses and saw this book when I was tutoring a first year student. My reaction was "I wish this had been the text when I took linear algebra." I am familiar with Lay, Anton, Strang, Nicholson, and Kolman but Poole beats them all in my opinion. Here's why: clear writing, lots of excellent examples, very good exercises, interesting examples, and extras (like independent study projects and real-world applications) that other books don't have.

At first I thought this book was pretty low-level. But after careful reflection, I realize this is not the case: it is easy to read but not a watered-down version of the subject: it's kind of sneaky that way.

All in all I give it thumbs way up.

I am a control systems engineer and deal with the design of physical systems, both linear as well as non-linear. I constantly use this text to refresh material related to linear systems and find it an indispensable resource. Here's why.

The text is very clearly written and the exercises are excellent. Dr Poole does not obfuscate core issues with lengthy proofs. Which is not to say proofs are not presented - they are, but in a very accessible (read "geometric") form. I would strongly urge serious students of the subject to work through the problem sets - they will bring a deeper level of understanding.

Highly recommended to students as well as professionals.

Update: Jul-2009
I would also recommend checking out Prof Gilbert Strang's MIT OCW lecture on Linear Algebra. Also get Strang's book of the same name - work through the video lectures and the book problems and you will end up with a first class background in the subject.

I'm going to make this simple: This book saved me!

I'we been studying linear algebra past semister, and the book the teacher assigned to us really wasn't explaining things well enough. I got this book one week before the final exam, and I can surely say that it is the only reason why I passed this class!

The book is very well written, and the author always seems to be ahead of your head, in knowing what parts might get you confused or what questions you might have in mind. It seems like every time I stumbled on something, the next sentence exactly explained what I was wondering about.

Buy this book, you will not regret it!

Besides copious amounts of unnecessary jargon and run-on sentences, the listed solutions (both in the appendix and separate [$$$] solutions manual) for problems in this book are frequently incorrect. BIG INCONVENIENCE AND WHOLLY UNACCEPTABLE; given that few problems in linear algebra are quickly processed by hand. If you use this text, expect to spend an hour on one problem attempting to find errors in your approach when in fact there are none, and the listed solution was just wrong.

Instructors and students agree that the frequency of incorrect answers is the biggest problem with this text.

Thou art warned.

This book gets more infuriating with each chapter. It starts off explaining things well enough, then it leaves you behind as it obviously thinks things are clear when they're not. This just piles up as you go along and by the middle of the book, this thing starts becoming a detriment to learning rather than an aide. An example - the book makes a point, then adds to the point, then brings it all together... not by explaining it, but by asking you "why?." Why?? Here's a great point to be made and you don't explain it, you just ask the reader to figure it out on their own? Why??? And Poole averages one why a page, no joke. For someone who thinks the material is dead simple, that's just a nuisance. For the rest of us, its no help at all. Lazy even. Given the price, this is not a book I'd recommend for anyone, not even as a reference. If you've been assigned this book for a class, ask around for a good backup. Texts shouldn't be a drag on learning, this one is.

This is the only textbook I have encountered, which is able to combine mathematical rigor with never-before-seen clarity in an almost flawless presentational style. But it goes beyond just being an almost perfect linear algebra textbook; its presentation is a singular, paramount example that should be the standard for the entire academic system.

While everyone was complaining about the poor textbook assigned by the instructor in my linear algebra class, I aced the exams just by the help of this textbook - completely disregarding the assigned readings and problems in the assigned text. This alternative turned out to be an exceptional helper.

I can't put into words how much I appreciate this text - it is the best teacher I could have ever had. Poole doesn't try to make things more complicated than they are; he makes the concepts easier/straightforward to understand - unlike other authors in his field.

As a first introduction to the subject, I believe this book( along with Carl D. Meyer's Matrix Analysis and Applied Linear Algebra) are the best books I have seen on the subject (as an introduction). This book had much clearer explanations than the textbook required for the class and, it included most of the topics covered during that semester. Looking back at the book, the properties of matrices, transpose, inner product, determinants, eigenvalue/vectors ect.. all come back up in applied engineering later on. All I have to do is, turn back to the pages as a quick refreshers ("oh yeah now I remember")... and continue on with an applied problems I have now in later clases from say, finite elements. The book includes a lot of examples which definitely helps you to consolidate the information when first taking the class. Later, the properties and definitions of things are more important, which may be a reason some professors choose to use other books. The scope of this book is like most linear algebra textbook and the order that it is presented is similiar. The clarity of explantion is what sets it apart. It may be difficult to see this if just browsing through without much thought. However when you are the student and have to get in the trenches and dig in to find details you need to prove something or solve a problem, this presentation here is much better that most. When I took this class, I actually decided to get this book due to the reviews on amazon because I was struggling to learn the material from the required text and I was glad I did. I was able to cover more ground and grasp the subject much better in less time. This lead me to do very well in the class (A) and more importantly to have a much better grasp on the subject, which in my opinion should be the intent of the class rather that to have the perfect bell curve distribution. All in all a great book, from a great teacher.

This textbook has very clear explanations as well as plenty of examples to help the reader learn linear algebra. I actually taught myself linear algebra using this textbook. The explanations in the book were much more helpful than my professor's lectures. Unlike most other math textbooks, this one includes plenty of applications and modern applications of linear algebra. That and the interesting and problems (of varying difficulties) in the textbook kept me interested in the subject. The problems are actually very instructive and helpful to my understanding. Whether you are buying this textbook to teach yourself linear algebra, or for a class, I highly recommend this book.

Having read a couple of books on the subject, I really think this is an ideal choice for any introductory Linear Algebra course. Poole's emphasis is clearly on readability for a range of students and building intuitive understanding on a vector-based foundation (where other texts have you lose sight of this through endless computations and sets of matrices). He provides intermittent examples of appropriately rigorous proofs without inundating you (lets you fill in the details in a few exercises) and always offers techniques to help you practically approach types of problems. I'm not a hardcore mathematics person - mostly taking these courses to fill my requirements for teaching high school physics - but I can honestly say that you can carefully read through a section once, and blaze through many problems that are on par with most other texts' (Poole, thankfully, is very generous with # of medium-level practice exercises, and carefully selects challenge problems that are enlightening but still in the scope of the book!). Just as a heads-up, this book doesn't always use the "classical" LA terminology (example: Chapter 5 doesn't emphasize that it is actually dealing with "the Fundamental Theorem of Linear Algebra"). However, it doesn't skimp on any vital intuitive/conceptual implications these theorems bring to light...

Ultimately, this book retains value even after you finish the course (keeping it, when I have the time to go through the entertaining professional applications of LA the author shows in detail). I would seriously consider buying books by this man if he published on other subjects, even if I didn't necessarily need the course!

Just to let you know, this is the only Linear Algebra text that I've actually been exposed to yet, I feel that it's a pretty good introduction to the subject since I learned quite a lot from it. This is the textbook that my professor used for my linear algebra class last semester. My professor wasn't very good at teaching the subject, but I feel he did well by choosing this title. Having read most of the pages in the book, I say that the text is fairly readable. Most of the time, the book actually gave better examples and explanations then the professor. One could probably teach themselves linear algebra with it.