Linear Algebra and Its Applications. This item is unavailable.Linear Algebra and Its Applications

An undergraduate-level text which challenges the student throughout with the development of topics in linear algebra. A study guide, instrutor's edition and instructor's technology resource manuals are also available.

Avoiding the Brick Wall
Linear algebra is relatively easy for students during the early stages of a course, when the material is presented in a familiar, concrete setting. But when abstract concepts are introduced, students often hit a "brick wall". Instructors seem to agree that certain fundamental concepts (such as linear independence, spanning, subspace/vector space, and linear transformations), are not easily understood, and require time to assimilate. Yet students' understanding of these concepts is vital to their mastery of the subject. Lay introduces these concepts early in a familiar, concrete R^n setting, develops them gradually, and returns to them again and again throughout the text. Finally, when discussed in the abstract, these concepts are more accessible because they are familiar. This is the only introductory linear algebra text that allows students to avoid the "brick wall."

David C. Lay holds a Ph.D. from UCLA and is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Maryland. He has over 30 research articles published in functional analysis and linear algebra, and as a founding member of NSF-sponsored Linear Algebra Curriculum Study Group, Lay has been a leader in the current modernization of the linear algebra curriculum.