Differential Equations Workbook For Dummies

This is a great book giving a review of most of the important basics for solving the most important types of differential equations. Keep in mind this is a workbook. It gives only the bare-bones basics as review of the theory before jumping to an example and then practice problems. I did not purchase the Dummies book that explains the theory which would have given more of a background for using the techniques that are presented. To understand the theory of why what the author gives works to solve a problem I had to dig out and review a book and notes I took when I was back in college in 1965 called "Differential Equations" by Walter Leighton. I give the book 4 stars instead of 5 because of the numerous errors I found which can be very frustrating to deal with. It should have been better edited. One other shortcoming is that the problems are all basically the same in a section- once you've done one, all the others go exactly the same way. Also,it would be nice to have a review set of problems at the end of each chapter where techniques from all the previous sections and chapters could be practiced so that it would be easier to remember all the previous methods that were learned.

This is a good book if you are looking to get a basic grasp of differential equations - a tough subject by any standard. Holzner has provided a book here that can be used by someone who has had calculus but no exposure to differential equations or for someone who wants an adjunct to a course one is taking in on the subject in school. He does not review any calculus concepts in the text, but just assumes you know them.The problems in this book have fully worked out solutions so you can understand exactly what is going on - great! I am a firm believer in being able to see worked out solutions. I think they provide an excellent way to master the concepts.He covers all the introductory material starting with terminology first. This is followed by linear, separable, and exact first order equations and Euler's method. In Part II, he covers second and higher order linear homogeneous and linear nonhomogeneous equations. Part three covers more advanced stuff such as using power series to solve problems, series solutions near singular points, Laplace transforms and systems of linear first order equations.This book is a companion to the theory book, Differential Equations for Dummies. You can cover each chapter in the theory book, and then do the problems in the workbook. The theory book is sometimes difficult to follow, but doing the problems in the workbook helps clear a lot of the fog. I would recommend getting the companion theory book, read the material in there first, then do the problems in this workbook. I found the problems presented in this workbook to be of the expected difficulty for an introductory text. If you want additional help, try Paul's Online Math Notes. This site is a great source for additional material on this subject. Just go to the section on differential equations.

I did a course in differential equations a long time ago and this book brought home the need for me to go over the ground again. I found it very useful, although the exercises were a little repetitive. This was not a problem for me. I'd do the worked example in MathType and then simply use Copy & Paste to work through the variations. I don't think I'd have been happy doing these with pencil and paper.I worked through the whole book. I found typos from a very early point and checking these reviews, I found many other complaints about this. I tried to make a virtue out of necessity and saw it as a challenge to identify the typos as part of my learning (or rather, relearning) process.So the typos were not a major distraction for me, but their frequency speaks ill of the Dummies editorial checking process.

The work book is fine, but it is keyed to the Differential Equations for Dummies book written by the same author. The exercises are generally of ordinary difficulty, and there are some topics that are not covered. The book doesn't touch on Green Functions, but unfortunately that is true of most American texts on ordinary differential equations. There should have been more variety displayed in the application of ordinary differential equations, especially in solving problems in dynamics, ciruit analysis, fluid dynamics and perhaps even for basic problems in astronomy. For me the real value of ordinary differential equations is in its use in unlocking solutions to all kinds of practical problems. But overall, this book is a good review and well worth having in your mathematics library.

The teaching method varies among teachers and differs greatly with the delivery methods such as Blackboard, Peasrson Learning platform, etc. This book maybe used as supplemental addition to these delivery method, but, to the first time students this book maybe more a source of confusion because of different notations, terms, and methods of attacking the material at hand. If you have had some exposure this book may be of some use. But, in conjunction with the text book being use, I believe it can be more of source of confusion than help. I guess if you are taking this course from the writer of this Dummy series book, this book probably would be more helpful. However, for majority of students this book, I am afraid is not that much of help, at least until basic level of proficiency has been reached in differential equation. I also looked at Schaum's differential equation book, that has similar short coming. You are better off just following the book that your class is using.

Standard fayre as far as For Dummies books go, and it's well laid out.HOWEVER...there are far too many significant mistakes in this book. Mistakes that make the limited instructions extremely confusing to the point where it is actually dangerous to learn from. Some errors are ready to spot (so why didn't the publishers notice??) but some will have you tearing your hair out wondering where you've gone wrong! Well, chances are you haven't!! Unbelievable...

Lovely book, i recommend it for all students in need to learn PDE, nice price not really expensive and in good state

Great for practice and understanding the concepts. If I had to choose I'd get this one before the "Differential Equations for Dummies" textbook. It's good to have them both, though.

OK

Nice book to practice on DEs.