What do you think?
Rate this book
Elementary Linear Algebra
Aimed at students, this seventh edition of 'Elementary Linear Algebra' has guided proofs to help students successfully complete theoretical proofs by leading them step-by-step to the correct conclusion.
592 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
10 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 2, 2018
The problems frequently cover material not explained in the chapter leaving the reader to search the internet for explanation.
Proofs are frequently "left to the reader" rather than explained.
Generally written as if someone with expertise was writing to display expertise rather than teach.
Horrible introduction book for beginners.
Proofs are frequently "left to the reader" rather than explained.
Generally written as if someone with expertise was writing to display expertise rather than teach.
Horrible introduction book for beginners.
June 19, 2020
Ok, I'm an engineer and I have forgotten everything from Uni so have blown the dust off linear algebra as I need it for a few things. I have tried, and am still using, the following texts:
David Lay, Schaum's, Keith Nicholson and A. Wayne Roberts but the best one I've found so far is Larson. If you are a math major you won't like Larson, you'll find the Schuam's, Lay or Nicholson texts more detailed and into proofs and all that. If you are an engineer, physics or chemist, Larson's book is for you.
Linear algebra, unlike calculus and differential equations, can be very tedious like other things in pure maths. Lots to memorize, axioms, rules, proofs.....not my thing. I need the linear algebra to understand basis, vector spaces, 3D geometry and the matrix algebra that goes along with it. The proofs to me are a tedious waste of time, a comment that the math majors will fume about but there it is. I want this as am relearning my vector calculus and want to move into tensors which require the LA....but not to the minute detail that Nicholson and Lay present.
30 years ago I asked my antennas professor why he didn't publish his notes as a text book as the book he had us buy, Balanis, was almost impossible and he dropped a line that has stayed with me since, "Balanis is not and was never written for you to learn from. Prof Balanis wrote it to impress me and his other colleagues world wide, he was not thinking of students. Most text books are like this, it's professors trying to impress other professors, students are an afterthought." .
There is much meat in that statement.
Larson is written for students to learn from, providing you're not a math major.
If you need more details, Nicholson, Lay or Harm's Speigel is what you need.
cheers,
john
David Lay, Schaum's, Keith Nicholson and A. Wayne Roberts but the best one I've found so far is Larson. If you are a math major you won't like Larson, you'll find the Schuam's, Lay or Nicholson texts more detailed and into proofs and all that. If you are an engineer, physics or chemist, Larson's book is for you.
Linear algebra, unlike calculus and differential equations, can be very tedious like other things in pure maths. Lots to memorize, axioms, rules, proofs.....not my thing. I need the linear algebra to understand basis, vector spaces, 3D geometry and the matrix algebra that goes along with it. The proofs to me are a tedious waste of time, a comment that the math majors will fume about but there it is. I want this as am relearning my vector calculus and want to move into tensors which require the LA....but not to the minute detail that Nicholson and Lay present.
30 years ago I asked my antennas professor why he didn't publish his notes as a text book as the book he had us buy, Balanis, was almost impossible and he dropped a line that has stayed with me since, "Balanis is not and was never written for you to learn from. Prof Balanis wrote it to impress me and his other colleagues world wide, he was not thinking of students. Most text books are like this, it's professors trying to impress other professors, students are an afterthought." .
There is much meat in that statement.
Larson is written for students to learn from, providing you're not a math major.
If you need more details, Nicholson, Lay or Harm's Speigel is what you need.
cheers,
john
February 6, 2022
Chiefly used for practices, this book comes to use when you do not have much time before examinations to attend to rather casual or say, literary prose of Gilbert Strang.
A stopgap? No, the exercises are instrumental.
Post script: why doesn't Cengage print it in India which would make it more available in the subcontinent. Or do they impel us to read pirated versions?
A stopgap? No, the exercises are instrumental.
Post script: why doesn't Cengage print it in India which would make it more available in the subcontinent. Or do they impel us to read pirated versions?
May 12, 2021
not much depth.
January 31, 2022
Very Easy to read and a nice intro to Linear Algebra
June 28, 2015
The publisher's pitch for the title indicates that three chapters were "moved online" as of the fourth edition due to "popular demand". I smell BS. I think the publisher did this to juice the margins on this textbook, which like most is overpriced.
Here are the chapter and section titles for the missing material from the book, which is now in its sixth edition:
8 Complex Vector Spaces
8.1 Complex Numbers
8.2 Conjugates and Divisors of Complex Numbers
8.3 Polar Form and DeMoivre's Theorem
8.4 Complex Vector Spaces and Inner Products
8.5 Unitary and Hermitian Matrices
9 Linear Programming
9.1 Systems of Linear Inequalities
9.2 Linear Programming Involving Two Variables
9.3 The Simplex Method: Maximization
9.4 The Simplex Method: Minimization
9.5 The Simplex Method: Mixed Constraints
10 Numerical Methods
10.1 Gaussian Elimination with Partial Pivoting
10.2 Iterative Methods for Solving Linear Systems
10.3 Power Method for Approximating Eigenvalues
10.4 Applications of Numerical Methods
I could perhaps be talked into believing that chapter 10 could be made an online supplement, as numerical methods are a huge subject with their own course, and to which any student of college mathematics will get some limited exposure through via calculus and differential equations courses.
But relegating complex-valued matrices, complex spaces, and linear programming to PDFs on the web where few students will see them is a crime against education.
I dock this textbook a star for its price and another for shunting three chapters into the online ghetto. However, compared to many other linear algebra textbooks I looked at, Larson/Falvo appears to be nearly the broadest survey of the subject around while remaining accessible to beginners (where "beginners" have at least a semester of single-variable calculus under their belt and ideally at least a brief exposure to ordinary differential equations). This text is heavy on applications, which I consider a major virtue.
Here are the chapter and section titles for the missing material from the book, which is now in its sixth edition:
8 Complex Vector Spaces
8.1 Complex Numbers
8.2 Conjugates and Divisors of Complex Numbers
8.3 Polar Form and DeMoivre's Theorem
8.4 Complex Vector Spaces and Inner Products
8.5 Unitary and Hermitian Matrices
9 Linear Programming
9.1 Systems of Linear Inequalities
9.2 Linear Programming Involving Two Variables
9.3 The Simplex Method: Maximization
9.4 The Simplex Method: Minimization
9.5 The Simplex Method: Mixed Constraints
10 Numerical Methods
10.1 Gaussian Elimination with Partial Pivoting
10.2 Iterative Methods for Solving Linear Systems
10.3 Power Method for Approximating Eigenvalues
10.4 Applications of Numerical Methods
I could perhaps be talked into believing that chapter 10 could be made an online supplement, as numerical methods are a huge subject with their own course, and to which any student of college mathematics will get some limited exposure through via calculus and differential equations courses.
But relegating complex-valued matrices, complex spaces, and linear programming to PDFs on the web where few students will see them is a crime against education.
I dock this textbook a star for its price and another for shunting three chapters into the online ghetto. However, compared to many other linear algebra textbooks I looked at, Larson/Falvo appears to be nearly the broadest survey of the subject around while remaining accessible to beginners (where "beginners" have at least a semester of single-variable calculus under their belt and ideally at least a brief exposure to ordinary differential equations). This text is heavy on applications, which I consider a major virtue.
April 11, 2011
Basic LA, some nice geo demo of low dimensional example to illustrate some theories. I expect more about eigenvector and eigenvalue however, so that I can better understand PCA, which is completely untouched here. Perhaps that is what "elementary" means.
September 21, 2009
Clear, though lacking in vector spaces -- the meat and potatoes of linear algebra.
April 3, 2017
Very good book. Everything clearly explained and most of the theorems are easy to pick up, without removing space for the reader to explore by himself.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews