| Elementary Linear Algebra: Text with Student CD |  | Authors: Ron Larson, Bruce H. Edwards
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Category: Book
Buy New: $103.60
New (8) Used (8) from $63.12
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 604221
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: 5
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 8.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0618400508
Dewey Decimal Number: 512
EAN: 9780618400508
Publication Date: June 13, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The hallmark of this text has been the authors' clear, careful, and concise presentation of linear algebra so that students can fully understand how the mathematics works. The text balances theory with examples, applications, and geometric intuition.
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| Customer Reviews:
 super fast delivery September 10, 2005
Young-ok Kim (usa)
0 out of 9 found this review helpful
This seller is so reliable, and move so fast. It took only three days to receive my book. I`m fullly satisfied with his(or her) service.
 use to supplement your main textbook April 4, 2007
A.Reader1 (Canada)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Many years ago I used Larson and Hostetler's 2nd edition of "Calculus" and enjoyed it very much (It's now in its 8th edition). That being said, it's wasn't everybody's cup of tea.
For potential users of both his Calculus and Linear Algebra book you should know Larson doesn't approach his subject in the traditional "theorem-proof-practical example" sort of way. Not many abstract, rigorous mathematical definitions either.
He teaches through examples. He might start off with a simple example or definition, then continue with a comment, explanation or formalism of what he's just done and then move on to more complex examples. Finishes with some simple problems. The more complex problems (i.e. involving proofs) are left 'til the end. In this way, you start very basic and then gradually you'll build knowledge and confidence.
His ethos is "well-chosen examples are better than thousands of words of explanation". It's a teaching style that works well for me.
Downside: Quite a bit of the 'meat' of the subject is scattered about in various places making its use for future reference almost impossible.
It's probably not going to impress your average math professor or someone who's wanting more rigor.
This book would function best as a supplement to your main text. Very easy to follow, a good selection of straightforward problems for practice or simply as a way to get a simpler explanation before proceeding with formalisms.
If anyone wants a similar book to Larson try "Introduction to Linear Algebra", Third Edition by Gilbert Strang. Other 'easier' books: "Linear Algebra: An Introduction" by Richard Bronson or "Linear Algebra: From the Beginning" by Eric Carlen & Maria Canceicao Carvalho.
Most math profs would probably choose something else for a 1 semester course. Maybe "Linear Algebra: A Modern Introduction" by David Poole (recommended) or "Linear Algebra and Its Applications" by Gilbert Strang.
For those who REALLY need to brush up on your skills read "Linear Algebra: An Introduction with Concurrent Examples" by Alan G. Hamilton first.
 Lackluster college textbook April 19, 2005
thatstheticket (Houston, TX USA)
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book does a decent job covering the material contained in its first three chapters, but its short-commings hinder the remainder of the book.
The presentation is somewhat sloppy. New information is presented in a half-hazard way making reference and review difficult. For a subject containing material that is by a large part interdependent, this essentially destroy's the book's usefullness. My copy is full of writting just to make up for this.
The reading does not takes little advantage of visual presentation techniques and the examples used in such visuals are of poor quality.
Examples given in the reading are not comprehensive enough for self study. This seems to be a common trait for college text books today. Instead, a sparse set of examples are given, and the reader is expected to decipher all other possible cases based on material in previously covered chapters. This is especially tedious because of the half-hazard presentation.
The problem sets given at the end of the chapters do not make recall of the information any easier. There are too many mechanical work-out problems of poor quality. Problem sets should have been more carefully selected to exercise the different permutations of a problem. This poor selection is probably a reflection of the poor selection of examples given in the reading itself. More problems which exercise the connection between the material covered in different sections of the text should have also been given.
The text book is for the most part an introduction into formal mathematics. Unfortunatly, for the most part, it does not use formal notation where appropriate. Definitions, theroems, lemmas, corollaries, etc. are in large part spelled out in English. A formal mathematical representation adjoined before or after would have made the text much better. Additionally, these were not given with a precise enough defintion which causes some confusion (e.g. conditionals and biconditionals were not always clear).
A large amount of the book covers algebraic fields in order to define a vector space, but never mentions that algebraic fields are being covered. Similarly algebraic rings are covered to a degree without metioning that they are algebraic rings.
Lastly I'd like to mention that this book uses both black and blue ink. The blue ink is used to highlight. Unfortunatly it is really distracting. I believe this has a large part to do with human color perception. A green ink or better yet, better formatting of the material would have been a much nicer choice.
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