For introductory courses in Differential Equations.
This best-selling text by these well-known authors blends the traditional algebra problem solving skills with the conceptual development and geometric visualization of a modern differential equations course that is essential to science and engineering students. It reflects the new qualitative approach that is altering the learning of elementary differential equations, including the wide availability of scientific computing environments like Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB. Its focus balances the traditional manual methods with the new computer-based methods that illuminate qualitative phenomena and make accessible a wider range of more realistic applications. Seldom-used topics have been trimmed and new topics added: it starts and ends with discussions of mathematical modeling of real-world phenomena, evident in figures, examples, problems, and applications throughout the text.