Customer Reviews

A First Course in the Numerical Analysis of Differential Equations (Cambridge Texts in Applied Mathematics)

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

 

 

In the graduate school, a Math professor used this book, as it talked about a bit of everything. Everything as in initial value problems (IVP) in ODE, 2 point boundary value problems ( BVP ) for ODE, finite difference schemes for boundary value elliptic PDE's and initial-boundary type hypebolic PDE's.

However, the book is written for a mathematician in mind, as the author clearly mentions in the preface. It is not for the light hearted. Book would serve as a

starting point for rigourous foundations in numerical analysis methods for solving

ODE/PDE. Excellent book over all, with numerical examples, watertight arguments,

and crisp prose, without being boring.

This is an excellent reference and textbook for someone hoping to go beyond the introduction to numerical DE found in any of the standard numerical analysis textbooks. It is not a research monograph, but is also not easy reading. It has already become a fairly standard reference in the literature because of its complete coverage and further references to more specialized sources. I have used it as the textbook for a graduate course on numerical differential equations. I highly recommend it for that purpose and as a reference for someone doing independent reading.

A very informal style of writing with lots of explanation. He doesn't skip large steps like in the old-fashioned terse style of math texts, which makes it very readable, though some readers may not like it. Not very rigorous, but he's upfront about it.

The original version from 1996 has quite a few errors, and the author maintains information on errata on his website. The most recent reprinting has corrected most of these errors. So, even though there is only a single edition, some versions have errors and some don't. So, BEWARE BUYING USED EDITIONS because they will most likely be from an earlier printing and thus have more errors. I assume the new version on amazon is the corrected version.