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This free online book (e-book in webspeak) should be usable as a stand-alone textbook or as a companion to a course using another book such as Edwards and Penney, Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: Computing and Modeling or Boyce and DiPrima, Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems (section correspondence to these two is given). I developed and used this book to teach Math 286/285 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (one is a 4-day-a-week, the other a 3-day-a-week semester-long course). I also taught Math 20D at University of California, San Diego with this book (a 3-day-a-week quarter-long course). There is enough material to run a 2-quarter course, and even perhaps a two semester course depending on lecturer speed.

The aim is to provide a low cost, redistributable, not overly long, high quality textbook that students will keep rather than selling back after the semester is over. Even if the students throw it out, they can always look it up on the net again. You are free to have a local bookstore or copy store make and sell copies for your students. See below about the license.

Another reason is to allow modification and customization for a specific purpose if necessary. If you do modify the book, make sure to mark it prominently as such to avoid confusion. This aspect is also important for longevity of the book. The book can be updated and modified even if I happen to drop off the face of the earth. You do not have to depend on any publisher being interested as with traditional textbooks. Furthermore, errata are fixed promptly, meaning simply that if you teach the same class next term, all errata that are spotted are already fixed. No need to wait several years for a new edition.

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