Textbook

Blanchard, Devaney, and Hall, Differential Equations, 2nd edition, Brooks/Cole, 2002. ISBN 0-534-38514-1. This text is available at the Textbook Annex. Be sure you get the Second Edition and be sure you get a copy that includes the CD. New copies of the text ($128.50) come with the CD; used copies ($96.50) may not. For some homework, you will need to run programs that are on the CD.

For errata in the textbook, see the authors' website page "Errors and Other Infelicities in the Second Edition".

Calculator

For homework and exams you should have access to a suitable graphing scientific calculator that is capable of: drawing slope fields of differential equations; finding and plotting approximate solutions of differential equations; solving quadratic and cubic polynomials even when the roots are complex; and doing basic matrix calculations, including finding eigenvalues.

OK: the Texas Instruments TI-89. This has nearly all the features of the TI-89 Titanium although it has considerably less memory. It is no longer manufactured, although it may still be available in stores. Its replacement is the TI-89 Titanium.

Maybe: the Texas Instruments TI-86. If you already own this and don't want to buy a new calculator now, you may be able to get by

If you insist upon using some other graphing scientific calculator, you do so "at your own risk": Even if you bring along the instruction book, there is no guarantee that I will be able to help you with such a calculator's use.

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Copyright © 2005 Murray Eisenberg