Best Differential Equations Books for Beginners: Recommendations and Reviews

[osnarf]

I was wondering if anybody could refer me to a few good differential equations books? I took an intro to diff eq class, but due to my job changing my work hours to the same time as the class I didn't get the full experience of the class (i got a B, but I don't really understand the material it was mostly just cramming).

So basically I have some exposure to it, but if you could refer me to a good intro book, and then a book or two to go to from there, that would be awesome.

Thanks!

 

[davesface]

Here's the one we used in my Intro to Diff EQ class:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0470383348/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I really liked that it includes a lot of applications that would be useful in other fields, but it probably could have been more rigorous.

 

[n!kofeyn]

I suggest https://www.amazon.com/dp/0395206545/?tag=pfamazon01-20 by Creighton Buck. You can get this book for dirt cheap on Amazon (like $3 cheap), but it is very good. Creighton Buck wrote a few other books, most notably Advanced Calculus, and he writes in a very down to Earth manner. Don't be put off by the book's publication date.

The Boyce/DiPrima book focuses on techniques of solving ODEs, which are rather useless. I have used less than half of the techniques I learned using that book. The Buck book will contain techniques, but will discuss the concepts, approximation methods, and even some modern topics that probably aren't in the Boyce/DiPrima book.

 

[Reedeegi]

I'm quite fond of Morris and Tenenbaum's https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486649407/?tag=pfamazon01-20. I used it in conjunction with the Boyce and DiPrima book and found Tenenbaum to be far superior in terms of coverage and clarity.

 

[Phyisab****]

What are you looking for? Boyce and DiPrima is the standard from what I've seen. It's decent. If you are self teaching you would benefit from something with a solutions manual. For engineering applications, numerical techniques are more important.

 

[l'Hôpital]

"Lectures on Ordinary Differential Equations" by Hurewicz is pretty good if you are looking for the mathematician's point of view. It is NOT a manual of methods for solving ODEs, though. Pretty self-containted, any analysis theorem that's brought up is usually stated formally and used without proof.

My class is using "An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations" by Agarwal and Regan, which I personally like. It goes a little too much into uniqueness theorems. It has like 10, and it's like "...seriously?" so I would read the sections that interest you. It's pretty self-contained, except the book has like two chapters literally dedicated to sharing theorems and random info from analysis and algebra.

If you want some Dynamical System type of thing, Hirsch and Smale is classic.

 

[osnarf]

I think I'm going to get Morris & Tenebaums and bucks, and read bucks first then go to Tenebaum. I appreciate your help guys.