Theory and Problems of Differential Equations is a member of the Schaum’s Outline Series. Written by Richard Bronson, this book meets more of my needs than the one from the Dummies Series. This is mostly because it includes problems to solve with their solutions. It is also more practical since it actually uses numbers in the problems rather than just variables and their relationships. Not to be misleading, though, since I don’t actually have classes or a job that requires me to know how to calculate Differential Equations. This is all for my own satisfaction and interest.

Differential Equations is a linchpin of modern mathematics, and by extension, the modern sciences. There is barely a subject using math that does not have some kind of application of these nifty little equations. It allows one to solve an equation using an unknown function and its derivatives. How exactly is that helpful, you ask? Well, if you have any field or equation where a quantity is changing, you can bet on Differential Equations being helpful or even fundamental.

Anyway, while I would say that both books were helpful, this one was more helpful than the other one. There isn’t really much else to say about this book, it follows the same structure as most other mathematical texts. It builds on what was introduced and proceeds from first principles. The best part about the book is the worked problems and the practice problems. I mean, the basic math doesn’t change all that much. The only thing that really changed was the level of computing power available to tackle the matrices and other mathematical constructs used in these subjects.

The book is not really that long. It doesn’t devote too many pages to a single subject. This allows it to cover a lot of subjects within Differential Equations. In any case, this book was really informative and well-done. There is one little point that bothers me; the book uses Imperial Units and if you are a person who likes your science to be Metric, it might be more than you can handle. That is honestly the only demerit to this book. If it didn’t use slugs for mass it would be great. ( )