Differential Equations for Engineers

Book excerpt: This book surveys the broad landscape of differential equations, including elements of partial differential equations (PDEs), and concisely presents the topics of most use to engineers. It introduces each topic with a motivating application drawn from electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineering. The text has reviews of foundations, step-by-step explanations, and sets of solved problems. It fosters students’ abilities in the art of approximation and self-checking. The book addresses PDEs with and without boundary conditions, which demonstrates strong similarities with ordinary differential equations and clear illustrations of the nature of solutions. Furthermore, each chapter includes word problems and challenge problems. Several extended computing projects run throughout the text.