Applied Functional Analysis (Dover Books on Mathematics)

I'm extremely satisfied with this purchase. This text is used in a master's level mathematics course at my school, but is also used in graduate level courses in other disciplines. It has extensive exercises and answers so it's superb for independent learning. The author strikes the perfect balance between intuitive exposition and the definition-theorem-proof trinity. The soft-back copy I received was in perfect condition, on time, and at a competitive price.

When studying chemical quantum mechanics some years ago, much reference was made to Hilbert spaces, functionals, adjoint operators and many of the mathematical constructs associated with functional analysis. The majority of books that I had available at that time offered little practical explanation and were overindulged with obscure details, mathematical proofs and issues far beyond what was needed by the beginning quantum chemist. I think that Griffel's book bridged the gap providing enough material to fully grasp the terminology and theorems needed for the study of quantum mechanics while not overwhelming the beginner. It think that this book would be a nice prelude to the one by Byron and Fuller.

Great book.

I was not looking for rigorous definitions. This book explains concepts clearly without oversimplifying.

Griffel's book is a great introductory functional analysis text. As the title suggests, it is aimed at applied mathematicians rather than theoreticians. In practical terms, it means that Griffel shows how the tools of functional analysis can be applied to differential equations, dynamical systems, and fourier analysis. Griffel gives proofs of most theorems, skipping proofs only when the proof requires a more sophisticated background than this book assumes. The assumed background of the reader is familiarity with calculus, basic differential equations, and some real analysis and linear algebra. A set of appendices cover the needed results from analysis.The main strength of Griffel's book is its readability. It is one of the most accessible advanced math books I have encountered, comparable to Munkres' "Topology". Griffel explains the intuitions underlying the abstract concepts he presents. He is also careful to point out when he makes a simplification or omission to avoid a difficult or subtle point more suitable to a pure math treatment of the subject. Furthermore, Griffel explains the logic behind his notation, something that is rarely done in math texts. Each chapter concludes with a set of problems. The problems are challenging, but test and expand the reader's understanding of the material. Hints are given for many of the problems.Overall, this is an excellent resource for the applied mathematician, engineer, or scientist who wants an accessible introduction to functional analysis. Besides, the price of the Dover Edition makes this book a real bargain.

This is the best book in Introductory functional Analysis book I know and I know a lot of them. Why is it so good? The definitions are very well motivated. Then the subtle points are illustrated with examples.Then there are the theorems all well motivated and with simple ,very well explained proofs. Then there are the applications to engineering and physics .All the aplications are well explained. There is no danger of not understanding the application. Then there are the problems with notes on them at the end ( The author offers you the complete solutions for a pittance)Finally the price....You can not beat this book

For some time I was trying to find a book on functional analysis that wasn't too technical nor too elementary. Even though there are excellent books on this domain none of them suited me. Griffel's book is exactly what I needed. Well structured, with a lot of examples and an effort to communicate the ideas behind the technicalities, makes the study and understanding of the domain fluent.

This book contains one of the best descriptions of the Frechet derivative (functional differentiation) and its applications that I have ever read. This has always been a mystery to me since it is such a fundamentally useful notion, and crops up everywhere in the subject of nonlinear PDE's and numerical analysis. I would recommend this book to any applied mathematician, and especially to engineers, based on Griffel's attention to applications.

Good as described