Partial Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers (Dover Books on Advanced Mathematics)

This highly useful text for students and professionals working in the applied sciences shows how to formulate and solve partial differential equations. Realistic, practical coverage of diffusion-type problems, hyperbolic-type problems, elliptic-type problems and numerical and approximate methods. Suggestions for further reading. Solution guide available upon request. 1982 edition.

Customer Reviews:

A must read for all those who hate PDE's

By raddy@bu.edu - May 6, 1998

We all had to go through the drudgery of PDE's in undergraduate courses and except if you're a math major your knowledge of the methods of solution will probably stop at separation of variables, Laplace transform and D'Alembert. This book is an excellent review of a host of methods for solution but what is more important is the physical interpretation of the PDE's the author insists on. Most of the physical examples are drawn from the fields of heat and mechanics but they can be easily applied to electromagnetic and semiconductor charge transport problems. Every aspiring senior in an engineering discipline should study this book for his own good.

Very Good

By Alberto Dominguez - May 8, 2003

Unbeatable as far as breadth. Covers a lot of ground, conceptually it's extremely well organized, and the explanations are very easy to follow. This text is ideal for self-study.The two major shortcomings are (1) slight lack of depth and (2) the exercises, which are far too few and far too simple.

A rare gem

By Atul Sharma - May 25, 2000

Partial differential equations can be obscure, and are often not dealt with at all at the undergraduate level. Assuming only a reasonable familiarity with calculus and ordinary differential equations, this book is extraordinarily clear and even enjoyable. Divided into neat, digestible segments suitable for self-study, I found it a very useful introduction to PDE's, covering a very broad range of topics and examples. My only suggestion for improvement would be a more up-to-date review of numeric methods using a computer algebra system. Nonetheless, even this section (examples intended to be worked by hand) is very clear and makes alternate texts much easier to absorb. I would recommend it to anyone wishing to be more comfortable with PDEs.