Can anyone recommend a good, practical Differential Equations (and Linear Algebra) book?

Question

Well, I took differential equations and linear algebra last semester, but I find I'm forgetting a lot of what I learned. For my class we used "Differential Equations and Linear Algebra" by Goode, and I wasn't too impressed.

I'd like to find a book that I could use to maintain and repair such knowledge so that I don't forget (preferably with a solutions manual so that I can check my worked problems).

Moreover, I'd like this book to focus more on applications, like deriving wave equations in physics, et cetera. But I'd like if it kept a little linear algebra in the picture, too.

Can anyone recommend a good book?

One of my professors suggested:
"Introduction to Differential Equations and Their Applications" by Campbell; does anyone have any experience with this book?

Answer 1

Not the nicholson linear algebra book, What a horrible book!!

There is a good book by Edgar Goodaire.......... try looking it up on chapters, should be able to get a cheap copy.

Answer 2

The book I use for my A.P. Calculus AB class is Calculus of a Single Variable by Larson, Hostetler, and Edwards. This is a very good book with explaining calculus and has many pictures. Also, there is a website that you can check your homework and assigned problems- it's called www.calcchat.com. Just by clicking the "Free Access" button, you can see worked out solutions. Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

I've used Fundamentals of Differential Equations by Saff, Nagle, and Snider, which I thought was a pretty decent text, lots of applications.

For Linear Algebra, I used 'Linear Algebra' by Shilov and 'Linear Algebra Done Right' by Axler. Shilov's book is pretty good, but I despise Axler's approach and definitely do not think its 'done right' at all.