So, I got my Diff. Eq. books today.

Shackleford

I got the textbook, solutions manual, and a book called ODE using Matlab. I've never used Matlab before. Will that be an issue?

Here's the textbook. Is this a good book?

http://www.amazon.com/Differential-E...9415070&sr=8-1

Landau

Isn't that a little late to ask? Personally I think it is too verbose, but the explanations are pretty clear in general. Not that hard.

Shackleford

Why would it be too late? This the only DE class offered this semester and I have to take it this semester to graduate on my timetable. I'm just wondering if it's a good book or not. That's all.

What about Matlab? Will I have any problem with that?

vociferous

If you have ever done any programming before (especially structured programming), you should be fine.

If you have not, you should still be fine; you just might have to spend some extra time learning the basics of coding.

Shackleford

I know a little bit of HTML. lol. But that's coding not programming.

vociferous

I would not worry too much about it. Since it is a math class, they are probably not going to get too deep into programming using Matlab, just teach you the basics.

Luongo

i used Maple before. im pretty good

n!kofeyn

I'm not for sure about the book, but MATLAB is an extremely easy language to learn. It is probably a little easier to learn than C, and it is definitely easier to plot and do other things in MATLAB rather than in C. The programming assignments probably won't be anything too significant, so you will definitely be able to handle programming in MATLAB.
I think you jumped the gun a little bit, as Shackleford explained. It was pretty clear that the book was for a course.

Landau

I thought it was a bit odd to ask whether a book is good if you already own it, because you can look for yourself, and because you'll have to use it anyway. But I understand it can be interesting to hear other opinions.

I used this book to supplement my lecture notes, which were very theoretical and dense. That's why the verboseness wasn't really a problem for me, but to use it as the main text...I don't know.