I used this book for a course in ODE's. The edition that was available for purchase at our school's bookstore also included a book by the authors for using MatLab for solving ODE's, The combination of the two were great. The book is logically structured and generally easy to read. The authors use many examples from a variety of fields. The MatLab book was a phenomenal help: it's the best intro to MatLab that I've found, and was very useful in helping to solve problems. My only beef with the book is that since this is a first edition, there are several errors in the odd numbered solutions at the end of the book, which caused many sleepless nights.

it seems like all the people reviewing this book has taken diffe at rice university, and no other universities have assigned this book. fortunately, i did not attend professor polking's section (i sat in on the first day and quickly switched sections). professor polking is a nice guy, and offers help when you need it (having said that, hopefully i won't feel so bad in my subsequent bashing). however, the book, like the second reviewer said, has very confusing proofs. the book is mostly just talk, and it's hard to tell what the key points (key equations) of each section are. it's also confusing because the sections aren't "sectioned" off--what leads to which key point? rather, it just seems to be one big blob of text, with the equations interspersed throughout. sure, buy it if it's required, but keep attend all lectures (if you are a college student) and keep another differential equations book handy, as you will undoubtedly not have a clue what polking is talking about.

As a student forced to buy Professor Polking's textbook, I feel that the only reason he publishes it is to punish students with more of his drivel. It isn't enough that he teaches the course poorly, his book is absolutely horrible, filled with mistakes. The proofs are confusing, and the book is less than helpful about the subject of differential equations. The problems are frequently unrelated to the material covered in sections, and are overly difficult, adding little to the student's knowledge of differential equations. I was very dissappointed after Professor Polking lined his pockets with the proceeds of this abysmal book.

I loved this book. The examples are clear, the proofs are easy to follow, and the book has a major applications aspect regarding applying what you learn on the computer and Matlab. My only complaint is that ch 5 (Laplace Transformations) is a little too terse, but besides that it is perfect. This and Lay's Linear Algebra book are my favorite mathematics books I've used so far.