Applied Partial Differential Equations

This textbook is for the standard, one-semester, junior-senior course that often goes by the title "Elementary Partial Differential Equations" or "Boundary Value Problems". The audience consists of students in mathematics, engineering, and the physical sciences. The topics include derivations of some of the standard models of mathematical physics and methods for solving those equations on unbounded and bounded domains. The text differs from other texts in that it is a brief treatment; yet it provides coverage of the main topics usually studied in the standard course as well as an introduction to using computer algebra packages to solve and understand partial differential equations.

To give this text an even wider appeal, the 2nd edition has been updated with a new chapter on partial differential equation models in biology, and with various examples from the life sciences throughout the text. There are more exercises, as well as solutions and hints to some of the problems at the end of the book.

• biology
• Boundary value problem
• differential equation
• mathematical physics
• ordinary differential equation
• partial differential equation
• solution
• standard model
• wave equation
• partial differential equations

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This second edition of the short undergraduate text provides a fist course in PDE aimed at students in mathematics, engineering and the sciences. The material is standard … . Strong emphasis is put on modeling and applications throughout; the main text is supplied with many examples and exercises." (R. Steinbauer, Monatshefte für Mathematik, Vol. 150 (4), 2007)

"This book contains an elementary introduction of partial differential equations to undergraduate students in mathematics, engineering, and physical sciences. … This is a unique book in the sense that it provides a coverage of the main topics of the subject in a concise style which is accessible to science and engineering students. … Reading this book and solving the problems, the students will have a solid base for a course in partial differential equations … ." (Tibor Krisztin, Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, Vol. 74, 2008)

• Department of Mathematics, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Lincoln, USA

  J. David Logan

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