A First Course in Differential Equations with Modeling Applications

The book for my Diffeq class was $150 in the school store. This is the exact same thing (with a different font and colors) for about $145 less. Every college student should know how to book-hunt like this. Came in great condition and has everything I need for class.

As mentioned by the title of this book: "A First Course in Diff Eq's", it supposes to be a book written for the students! When I was an undergraduate student in pure math, my textbooks were: 1. Calculus: Marsden and Tromba 2. Linear Algebra: Hoffman, Kunze 3. Advanced Calculus: Loomis, Sternberg 4. Diff Eq's: Birkhoff, Rota 5. Abstract Algebra: Jacobson 6. Real Analysis: Rudin 7. Point Set Topology: Dugunji 8. Differential Geometry: Helgason The above were the textbooks my professors used for my first 3 years when I was in college! What is wrong to have a textbook that students can read and learn? Ah, I forgot that a mostly used teaching trick: adopting a "hard" textbook, and teaching from the contents of another textbook. If people think this book is too easy, why not try "Birkhoff, Rota" or "Coddington, Levinson", and see the reactions from your students? My dear colleagues: please think what happened when you were a college student, and the origin of diff eq's!

I have to say I'm shocked by some of the negative reviews here. Granted, I'm a math major, but I found this book to be relatively unintimdating and refreshingly lucid in its presentation of points. I was able to follow every single derivation that was given in the sections we covered. Not only this but due to the nature of the presentation, I was able to anticipate a result or two from one section to the next, which really inspired some confidence. :) The wide margins left plenty of room for the annotations I made, and unless you're an uber-genius who gets everything immediately, you will definitely need to make some annotations. Another excellent aspect of this book is that it serves as a natural bridge from the overly graphical, mickey-mouse presentations given in standard calculus texts to the more terse books in higher math. The graphics are sparse compared to a modern calculus text, but they are informative and maximize understanding. I think this book is indispensable in the pursuit of the "ability to read a math book" skill which many majors require.

I'm a engineering student at Illinois Institute of Tech. I used this book for my differential equation class. I found this book very useful for both my independent study and catching up with my school work.