Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 3rd Updated Edition (Book & CD-ROM)

Excellent book. However, the CD-ROM was missing.

I have read, in details, many math books. This one stands on the top echelon. Extremely good explanations, superior examples, and it takes the space to write about the details. Some books will brush you off with sentences such as "this is clearly true", "this is trivial", and other nonsense that authors allow themselves to just put worthless book in the market. Hey, we were not be studying this subject if it was trivial. You will NOT find this in this book. Everything is explained !!! I also found it an excellent book to keep in your personal library. It is a good reference.

I wanted to give this book four and half stars but I cannot do that so I just rounded up. When I first started trying to learn Linear Algebra on my own, I was a little lost. After having enrolled in the course at my college, coupled with reading this book, I have a better understanding of it now. I am not a math major so I have no use for proofs and theorems. You may here others complain that this book does not offer any of that, this book, I believe, was designed for those other than math majors. Math professors can teach you the proofs and theorems if you need those, but this book focuses on other aspects, hence the title...and Its Applications. Lay, lays out each chapter in several subsections that cover a wide variety of topics. Each example he gives is helpful to some extent, this is why I wanted to give him 4.5 stars, but not completely. However, Lay provides a wealth of resources through his web site, which well makes up for anything missing from his book. The companion web site offers several programs for downloading, I believe free of charge. These programs are available for MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple and the TI calculators. It also has other student resources as well. In addition to the web site, there is an included cd that provides detailed solutions to every third problem in the book. Overall, this is a very good book that allows the student to easily comprehend the world of linear algebra.

I used this as the textbook for an undergraduate course in Linear Algebra. It was by far the most reader-friendly math book I've ever had the pleasure of using. The book explains Linear Algebra in plain, easy-to-read english. Each section of each chapter is very clear and to-the-point. The examples are helpful and well-placed in the chapters. I attribute getting an 'A' in that class to this text.One word of advise however... the study guide for this text comes in handy at numerous points of the book. It's not needed, but strongly advised. Other than that, the book is great! I only wish that I had a calculus book that well written.

I used it in a linear algebra class when I was an undergraduate at Cornell. I found out that it was a very readable and useful reference for concepts and theories. The book is very organized; and it's such a good start for people who are interested in learning linear algebra. Believe me! U won't be disappointed!!!