Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations

well this is the solution book to the textbook. The solutions were as much understandable as the textbook itself - not so clear. However, its a good tool to know the answers and how they got to that point.

When I was an undergraduate student taking my first course in differential equations the class hat had a textbook that had a lot of pictures and almost no explaining of the material (i.e. the usual just try this method that works & the magic how did they get that step).... Thus, being a student that wanted to do well in the course I sought out a different book to read and found the Ross book. The Ross differential equations book is an excellent introduction to differential equations as it does answer why things work, but still keeps it at an introductory level that freshman / sophomore college students can grasp. Now, that I have completed 80 years of school and have been granted the opportunity to be an assistant professor I choose this book to teach from as it keep that balance: for the students who want to see why things work it gives an outline, but then on the next page for the students who just want to solve the problems it gives the generic process that can be followed to solve the problems. And, the other useful thing is LOTS OF FULLY WORKED EXAMPLES, and not just simple examples. This book starts with one simple example and then builds to a more challenging example and continues in that fashion. I guess the only thing I can complain about this book is there are no pretty pictures like all of the books have, but at least you can say if you read this book you will learn differential equations.. Tim p.s. there is also a third edition available for about the same price that is the exact same book, but also adds in a few chapters as an introduction to partial differential equations / Fourier series at the end of the book which is very useful for engineers and scientist.

Although this text has its problems, its an overall strong introducton to ODEs. Just exactly like another reviewer said, Some techniques (such as the operator method) are not given enough attention, while others are given a little too much attention. The applied sections can get a little flaky as well (Why the author does not use metric units is beyond me) That being said, it is a very clearly written book. It is rarely (if ever) confusing, and the examples are generally good. His language and notation is not difficult to understand, and the plainly written style is a plus for any beginner to differential equations. I used this in my ODE class and this book alone is enough I would say. If it were a little more balanced with the methods and had a more robust applied sections I would give it five instead of four stars.

I rated this five stars for several reasons: 1. English isn't my native language. But when studied ODE in sophomore life, I could read this book thoroughly without any difficulty. It's style is clear, plain. 2. For a beginner to ODE, I thought an "introduction" is most important. This book undoubtedly provides an introduction to ODE and more to make you aspire to study other deeper books. 3. "An example speaks more than thouand words of explanation." Besides giving you complete and good explanation, the book also has wonderful examples to them. Read the explanations and examples, then do execises. I found that I had more clear concepts about ODE than others. Thank you, Mr. Ross. ^_^

I used this book when I was an undergrad student...as far as I can remember it is an easy to read book. The exercises are well chosen and helps to reinforce the basic principles quite well. In other words, whatever is discussed in that book is discussed well. However, some very important techniques in solving ODE's are left out such as the operator methods which could been easily integrated into the text. Instead, methods such as variation of parameters and undetermined coefficients are discussed at length. Furthermore, more emphasis should have been given to the Laplace transform. That is the reason why the book was given 4 stars. Overall, Ross' book is a good introduction to ODE and the interested undergraduate student would most likely enjoy reading it.