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Through many examples and real-world applications,
Practical Linear Algebra: A Geometry Toolbox, Third Edition
teaches undergraduate-level linear algebra in a comprehensive, geometric, and algorithmic way.
Designed for a one-semester linear algebra course at the undergraduate level, the book gives instructors the option of tailoring the course for the primary interests: math, engineering, science, computer graphics, and geometric modeling.
New to the Third Edition
- More exercises and applications
- Coverage of singular value decomposition (SVD)
- Application of SVD to the pseudoinverse, principal components analysis, and image compression
- More attention to eigen-analysis, including eigenfunctions and the Google matrix
- Greater emphasis on orthogonal projections and matrix decompositions
- Fundamental concepts tied to repeated themes such as the concept of least squares
To help students better visualize and understand the material, the text introduces the fundamental concepts of linear algebra first in a two-dimensional setting and then revisits these concepts and others in a three-dimensional setting. The text also discusses higher dimensions in various real-life applications. Triangles, polygons, conics, and curves are introduced as central applications of linear algebra.
Instead of using the standard theorem-proof approach, the text presents many examples and instructional illustrations to help students develop a robust, intuitive understanding of the underlying concepts.
Features
- 120 numerical examples
- More than 280 illustrations
- WYSK (What You Should Know) summary of main points at the end of each chapter
- Over 200 exercises at the end of each chapter with selected solutions in an appendix
- Extensive glossary
- Robust index
- Mathematica® code and other materials in the downloads section
- For instructors: solutions manual, lecture slides, and test bank available
To learn more, take a peek at the Table of Contents and Preface
What's different about our approach to Linear Algebra?
The figures are not included as window dressing, in fact they play an important role in bringing the reader to a robust understanding of the mathematics. However they are not only instructional, they are also fun!
Our motivation for writing PLA is described in our Fall 2005 TIES Magazine (design and technology education) article, "A Practical Approach to Teaching Linear Algebra."