Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 4th Edition

If you are taking Lin Alg then you have heard of Strang. This is his more advanced book on the topic and it is the be all end all of the topic. I have taken a couple grad courses that did not use this book but the instructor instead wanted to use an obscure text written by someone they knew. I bought this book and used it as a resource for both and it was worth every penny. Things i needed for the other courses were explained well and things that were not necessary were written in an interesting manner and i learned them on my own. I would love to have had him as my adviser or someone to just sit and have coffee with every morning and discuss math.

This is an amazing book. I used this book in order to study for my second linear algebra course and it was a big help. Linear algebra can be a complex and daunting subject but Strang does a great job of making all the content relevant and interesting. The level of detail and clear explanations from Strang are just amazing and I would recommend the book to any college student curious about diving into the field of linear algebra.

I was first exposed to this book when I took an applied linear algebra course at the University of Illinois. It was way too chatty, and many of the essential points were buried within the text. It was a frustration to use, and I ended up dropping the course and enrolling in an abstract linear algebra course the following semester, which happened to use Friedberg, Insel, and Spence's text. I ended up doing better with the FIS text for a first treatment of linear algebra, mainly because everything was laid out clearly (definition,theorem, proof). I found myself having a fond appreciation of Strang's text later on; It essentially added the "meat" to the "bones", and helped solidify many of the things I previously learned in a more abstract setting. Not to mention, the applications became much clearer. I still can't recommend Strang's text for a first course in linear algebra, but it is a delightful book to use after your first exposure.

Strang can teach math to anybody!

The book was okay, but I cannot recommend it to anyone. Strang, the author, does not explain the topics too well. This book is definitely not, in my opinion, a book for beginners or people just being exposed, for the first time, to linear algebra.Apparently, everyone who took linear algebra at my university last semester agreed. My school offered two sections of the class last semester with both professors using the same book. Next semester, based on student feedback, both professors unanimously agreed to switch to another book.The worked-out examples are very few in number and do not cover the topics gone over in the problems at the end of each section in the book. In my previous calculus books, if I had trouble on a problem, I could go back to a specific section in the chapter and read why a certain answer was the answer. In this book, despite the claims that linear algebra is a well understood mathematical discipline, it was nearly impossible to find a good explanation as to why a certain answer was a good answer.There is another thing. Strang would often put problems on a certain topic in, say chapter one and not officially go over that topic in, say, chapter three. In my opinion, that is such a bad way to introduce a topic to a beginner and quite the turnoff.For the most part, the online video lectures do help in further explaining the topics gone over in the book. But, the online video lectures are from Spring 1999 and a different book, so the material is a little dated but easy to follow.Unless your professor knows exactly what he is talking about, I would recommend finding another supplementary text to better understand the topics gone over in this book. This book was definitely not worth the $170 I paid for it.

I went through the first 5 chapters. Strang created a readable text that offers helpful explanations and illustrations. He focuses more on concepts and less on proofs. A math major may want a more proof-laden text. As an engineer, I really liked his approach. Note: The 3rd edition has pretty much the same material for a lower price.