Help me find my old differential equations textbook
April 13, 2012 1:25 PM Subscribe
Help find this differential equations textbook (or, suggest a good one).
I took undergraduate differential equations in 1997 at Lewis and Clark College. I remember the textbook we used there was kind of interesting, in that we did a lot of sketching solutions to various systems of differential equations, and it was a very graphical approach (as opposed to "here's a list of recipes; do stuff" that you see in so many textbooks.) Alas, it has disappeared in the mists of time and moves.
The textbook was pink and blue, I think, and softcover, and I believe we were using a preliminary edition. I thought it was written by Gerry Folland at the UW, but that is clearly wrong (the only differential equations text he has listed is graduate-level). Anyway, the cover of the book looked similar to this:.
I don't remember a whole lot from the class, but I do remember we spent a lot of time sketching solutions to differential equations where complex eigenvalues? maybe, determined a source or a sink of the solution and the solution was all swirly.
The texts we're currently using are very cookbooky, and it seems like it would be nice to have one that was less so. So if you've got recommendations for DE textbooks you like, that would be nice too.
I took undergraduate differential equations in 1997 at Lewis and Clark College. I remember the textbook we used there was kind of interesting, in that we did a lot of sketching solutions to various systems of differential equations, and it was a very graphical approach (as opposed to "here's a list of recipes; do stuff" that you see in so many textbooks.) Alas, it has disappeared in the mists of time and moves.
The textbook was pink and blue, I think, and softcover, and I believe we were using a preliminary edition. I thought it was written by Gerry Folland at the UW, but that is clearly wrong (the only differential equations text he has listed is graduate-level). Anyway, the cover of the book looked similar to this:.
I don't remember a whole lot from the class, but I do remember we spent a lot of time sketching solutions to differential equations where complex eigenvalues? maybe, determined a source or a sink of the solution and the solution was all swirly.
The texts we're currently using are very cookbooky, and it seems like it would be nice to have one that was less so. So if you've got recommendations for DE textbooks you like, that would be nice too.
I just say that because it seems like you want an ODE textbook, but you've linked to a PDE one?
posted by 200burritos at 1:35 PM on April 13, 2012
posted by 200burritos at 1:35 PM on April 13, 2012
Response by poster: I'm looking for an ODE textbook. The front cover looked similar to the linked PDE textbook. (similar enough that having seen the cover of the PDE textbook and the words "differential equations" on it at some point, that I had thought it was my textbook. Which clearly it wasn't. )
posted by leahwrenn at 1:43 PM on April 13, 2012
posted by leahwrenn at 1:43 PM on April 13, 2012
This book was what we used at Rutgers, and it was one of the best texts I used in the major, even though I was sort of meh about analysis. The authors use themselves in amusing ways in word problems, and the approach is very conceptual.
posted by alphanerd at 1:54 PM on April 13, 2012
posted by alphanerd at 1:54 PM on April 13, 2012
Best answer: This book was used by a friend who graduated in the early 2000s from Lewis and Clark.
posted by pmb at 6:34 PM on April 13, 2012
posted by pmb at 6:34 PM on April 13, 2012
I used the Blanchard text linked by alphanerd ~10 years ago at Michigan, and the edition cover linked by pmb looks similar to the Folland book. I can't remember details of the book's approach anymore, but here's another piece of anecdata suggesting it was a well-respected text.
posted by axiom at 8:09 PM on April 13, 2012
posted by axiom at 8:09 PM on April 13, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by 200burritos at 1:32 PM on April 13, 2012