1. Ordinary Differential Equations by
Harry Pollard
My Own Little Opinion On This Great Book
Skillfully organized introductory text examines origin of differential
equations, then defines basic terms and outlines general solution of a
differential equation. Subsequent sections deal with integrating factors;
dilution and accretion problems; linearization of first order systems;
Laplace Transforms; Newton’s Interpolation Formulas, more.
I took ODE this semester, and I was liking the subject until I got to read the
textbooks assigned to t. It is impressive how the world is filled with giant
text books that are absolutely dull and useless and extremely expensive.
Lucky I have always been fond of Amazon, and I searched Ordinary
Differential Equations and came upon this book, who at first glance looks
tiny and unpromising, but trust me, this little beast doesnt talk about ODE,
it yells it, it takes the subject, makes it its own, and in the most elegant of
fashions transmits the knowledge so well that it even if I live in Ecuador
and English is only my second language, I could grasp all what was
necessary to, not only pass ODE, take my knowledge and apply it to
computer programming right away.
Trust me, if a book teaches so well that you can go ahead and apply it just
like that, it is something special.
Now strictly speaking on its qualities:
First, the book is a breeze to read, you will not find yourself reading back
again through the text because of the lack of good pedagogy, but be
aware, the writer does not bother to make you laugh either (a quality most
serious books should not have, but I like what Stephen Prata did on C++
Primer Plus). Secondly, Ordinary Differential Equations has all that you will
probably need for the subject. Check the MIT Open Course Ware, I
downloaded the exams on the web page and did them singlehandedly,

2. only with what this book taught me. Actually, youll see lots of other topics
that MIT doesnt even cover, for example it has a very interesting section
on numerical methods.
Something that has to be mentioned is that this book covers a great
amount of material in a excellent order and pace. The writer never
assumes that you are a genius on calculus, so he always makes sure to
guide you, holding your hand on each topic, repeating theorems already
mentioned to refresh your head, not skipping to many steps when solving
examples. This feature is seen at its best in the Series Methods section of
the book. Also, the amount of problems is wonderful, they all have
solutions and are right next to the problems, unlike the convention, which
gives solutions only to the odd number problems and has them written at
the very end of the book, something that I hate, for the constant page
turning greatly damages the book. Dont you worry, the writer solves many
examples and each subject, explaining everything so you can work on the
problem set rather easily.
The only setbacks that I noticed on this book is that, when teaching the
prerequisites to a subject, it doesnt bother to demonstrate the theorems
(which is fine by me, because you should already know that stuff in the fist
place), and it doesnt have all the fancy graphics that the outrageously
expensive ODE books have (for this I use Matlab or Mathematica, so I also
dont care about his). You also have to consider that his books is quite old,
and the numerical methods are a bit dated, still, any good teacher will fill
you in with the little updates made to the subject.
All in all this book is nothing short of amazing, I give it all my fingers up to
anyone who is taking ODE or wants an awesome reference book. I found it
easy to read, precise, and vast. This book will probably do you more
justice than anything worth >$100.
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