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Exploring ODEs

by Lloyd N. Trefethen, Ásgeir Birkisson, Tobin A. Driscoll · SIAM / University of Oxford

SIAM textbook by Trefethen, Birkisson and Driscoll, released free as a PDF by the authors. Treats initial value problems, boundary value problems, stiffness, blow-up and chaos, illustrating each concept with short Chebfun computations and roughly 400 generated figures. Bridges the gap between symbolic IVP technique and what solutions really do: every example is solved numerically and plotted, so learners see stiffness, sensitivity to initial data and finite-time blow-up rather than reading about them.

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Wolfram MathWorld

MathWorld is an online mathematics encyclopedia from Wolfram Research offering detailed, browsable articles on topics across the math spectrum, including algebra, geometry, calculus, and number theory. Each entry includes definitions, theorems, formulas, diagrams, worked examples, and links to further reading.

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Paul's Online Math Notes - Differential Equations

Paul Dawkins' free Lamar University notes for a first ODE course, with worked examples on first-order equations, second-order linear equations, Laplace transforms, systems and series solutions, so learners can solve initial value problems by hand step by step.

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Introduction to Differential Equations

Learn differential equations: explore methods for solving, modeling, and analyzing them. Taught by the Khan Academy Team.

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Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and an Introduction to Chaos (3rd Edition)

Proof-based successor to Hirsch and Smale's classic, building phase space theory from linear systems and canonical forms through nonlinear flows, equilibria and stability, limit sets, the Poincare-Bendixson theorem, bifurcations, and chaotic attractors, with exercises.

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Qualitative Behavior: Phase Portraits (MIT 18.03SC)

Covers sketching trajectories of two-dimensional linear systems in the phase plane, classifying critical points as nodes, saddles, spirals or centers, and reading stability from the trace-determinant diagram. Includes notes, problem-solving videos, Mathlet demonstrations and practice problems with solutions, so learners can sketch portraits unaided.

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Ordinary Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems

Graduate textbook published as AMS Graduate Studies in Mathematics 140, with the full PDF free on the author's university page. Part I develops initial value problems rigorously: Picard-Lindelöf existence and uniqueness, dependence on initial conditions, and extensibility.

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