Lectures on Ordinary Differential Equations

"A rigorous and lively introduction . . . careful and lucid . . ."--The American Mathematical Monthly. Excellent hardcover edition. This concise and idea-rich introduction to a topic of perennial interest in mathematics is written so clearly and lucidly, it is well within the reach of senior mathematics students. It covers mainly existence theorems for first-order scalar and vector equations, basic properties of linear vector equations, and two-dimensional nonlinear autonomous systems. Throughout, the emphasis is on geometric methods. Witold Hurewicz was a world-class mathematician whose untimely death in 1956 deprived the mathematics community of one of its leading lights. His contributions to dimension theory, homotopy and other topics are outlined by Professor Solomon Lefschetz in a prefatory article "Witold Hurewicz in Memoriam" included in this volume. Also included is a list of books on differential equations for those interested in further reading, and a bibliography of Hurewicz's published works. Unabridged Dover republication of the work originally published by MIT Press, 1958. Prefatory article "Witold Hurewicz in Memoriam" by Solomon Lefschetz. List of References. Index. 26 figures.