Differential Equations: A Primer for Scientists and Engineers is a textbook designed with the needs of today's student in mind. It is the ideal textbook for a first course in elementary differential equations for future engineers and scientists, including mathematicians. This book is accessible to anyone who has a basic knowledge of precalculus algebra and differential and integral calculus. Its carefully crafted text adopts a concise, simple, no-frills approach to differential equations, which helps students acquire a solid experience in many classical solution techniques. With a lighter accent on the physical interpretation of the results, a more manageable page count than comparable texts, a highly readable style, and over 800 exercises designed to be solved without a calculating device, this book emphasizes the understanding and practice of essential topics in a succinct yet fully rigorous fashion.

The book formally splits the "pure" and "applied" parts of the contents by placing the discussion of selected mathematical models in separate chapters. At the end of most of the 230 worked examples, the author provides the Mathematica® commands for verifying the results. The book can be used independently by the average student to learn the fundamentals of the subject, while those interested in pursuing more advanced material can regard it as an easily taken first step on the way to the next level. Additionally, practitioners who encounter differential equations in their professional work will find this text to be a convenient source of reference.

Other Springer publications by Christian Constanda: Dude, Can you Count? ISBN: 978-1-84882-538-3; Stationary Oscillations of Elastic Plates, ISBN: 978-0-8176-8340-8.

Christian Constanda, MS, PhD, DSc, is the holder of the Charles W. Oliphant Endowed Chair in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Tulsa, USA. He is also theChairman of the International Consortium on Integral Methods in Science and Engineering (IMSE).

Autorentext

Born and educated in Romania, Prof. Constanda is Emeritus Professor from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Christian Constanda currently holds the Charles W. Oliphant Endowed Chair in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Tulsa and the directorship of the Center for Boundary Integral Methods. He has been a prolific author/editor for Birkhauser and for Springer for many years. Constanda has authored several successful texts with CRC press and other publishers as well. His most recent Springer Copernicus title "Dude, Can you Count?" has sold 848 copies to date. Other authored volumes with Springer include "Variational and Potential Methods for a Class of Linear Hyperbolic Evolutionary Processes" (SMM). Prof. Constanda has published several edited volumes with Birkhauser.

Klappentext

Differential Equations for Scientists and Engineers is a book designed with students in mind. It attempts to take a concise, simple, and no-frills approach to differential equations. The approach used in this text is to give students extensive experience in main solution techniques with a lighter emphasis on the physical interpretation of the results. With a more manageable page count than comparable titles, and over 400 exercises that can be solved without a calculating device, this book emphasizes the understanding and practice of essential topics in a succinct fashion. At the end of each worked example, the author provides the Mathematica commands that can be used to check the results and where applicable, to generate graphical representations. It can be used independently by the average student, while those continuing with the subject will develop a fundamental framework with which to pursue more advanced material. This book is designed for undergraduate students with some basic knowledge of precalculus algebra and a first course in calculus.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. First Order Equations.- 3. Mathematical Models with First-Order Equations.- 4. Linear Second-Order Equations.- 4. Higher-Order Equations.- 5. Mathematical Models with Second-Order Equations.- 6. Higher-Order Linear Equations.- 7. Systems of Differential Equations.- 8. The Laplace Transformation.- 9. Series Solutions.- A. Algebra Techniques.- B. Calculus Techniques.- C. Table of Laplace Transforms.- D. The Greek Alphabet.