Incorporating a number of enhancements, Solution Techniques for Elementary Partial Differential Equations, Second Edition presents some of the most important and widely used methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs). The techniques covered include separation of variables, method of characteristics, eigenfunction expansion, Fourier and Laplace transformations, Green’s functions, perturbation methods, and asymptotic analysis.
New to the Second Edition
New sections on Cauchy–Euler equations, Bessel functions, Legendre polynomials, and spherical harmonics
A new chapter on complex variable methods and systems of PDEs
Additional mathematical models based on PDEs
Examples that show how the methods of separation of variables and eigenfunction expansion work for equations other than heat, wave, and Laplace
Supplementary applications of Fourier transformations
The application of the method of characteristics to more general hyperbolic equations
Expanded tables of Fourier and Laplace transforms in the appendix
Many more examples and nearly four times as many exercises
This edition continues to provide a streamlined, direct approach to developing students’ competence in solving PDEs. It offers concise, easily understood explanations and worked examples that enable students to see the techniques in action. Available for qualifying instructors, the accompanying solutions manual includes full solutions to the exercises. Instructors can obtain a set of template questions for test/exam papers as well as computer-linked projector files directly from the author.
Reviews
Solution Techniques for Elementary Partial Differential Equations is an interesting read. … Some of the worked-out examples cover not only the conventional topics of heat and wave problems but also applications to a wide variety of fields, from stock markets to Brownian motion. … Each chapter has many problems for practice, with solutions for some of them provided at thnd. The book is well written, concise, has adequate examples and can be used as a textbook for beginners to learn the techniques of PDE solvers.
—MAA Reviews, January 2011
This concise, well-written book, which includes a profusion of worked examples and exercises, serves both as an excellent text in undergraduate and graduate learning and as a useful presentation of solution techniques for researchers and engineers interested in applying partial differential equations to real-life problems.
—Barbara Zubik-Kowal, Boise State University, Idaho, USA
The author, a skilled classroom performer with considerable experience, understands exactly what students want and has given them just that: a textbook that explains the essence of the method briefly and then proceeds to show it in action. … In my opinion, this is quite simply the best book of its kind that I have seen thus far. The book not only contains solution methods for some very important classes of PDEs, in...
