4 ms·

As a math educator, I strongly dislike both Strang and Axler for a 1st course. I've heard great things about Strang's lectures, but his book is disorganized and

As a math educator, I strongly dislike both Strang and Axler for a 1st course. I've heard great things about Strang's lectures, but his book is disorganized and too heavy on computation. Axler's book is wonderful, but as explicitly stated on the back cover, it's designed for a 2nd course and primarily aimed at math majors. I recommend and teach my YouTube Live series out of Fraleigh [1], but unfortunately it's out of print. Lay seems to be a good modern alternative. [1] https://linear.mathcanbeahobby.com https://linear.mathcanbeahobby.com

fny 2mo ago
Apparently, it's on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/linearalgebra0000fral/ https://archive.org/details/linearalgebra0000fral/
- cmetzger4 2mo ago
  Appears only the front-matter of the book is available on IA (limited preview); the content was omitted.
ACV001 2mo ago
agree, tried both and they are hard as a starter.
- margalabargala 2mo ago
  It may simply be that linear algebra is a difficult topic to become introduced to, and even the best teaching tools cannot make it easy.
  - throw46363435 2mo ago
    Hard disagree. Linear algebra is one of the easiest topics in mathematics. In my experience, 3Blue1Brown videos are a great simple introduction. Beyond that, Kostrikin’s books.
genxy 2mo ago
What do you think of the other Fraleigh books?
tomjakubowski 2mo ago
Strang's OCW lectures are fantastic. His voice rings "combinations of columns" in my head almost ten years later whenever I do a matrix or matrix-vector multiply on paper. I found the textbook was a good accompaniment for the lecture course, but maybe not a good book to use on its own for self-study. (IIRC, when following the lectures, you jump around the chapters a bit out of order [or, you read the chapters non-linearly]. So the disorganized thing may be true.)
selimthegrim 2mo ago
I agree Strang is awful, the department I taught in used Fraleigh/Lay in the past. I used a book by A.O. Morris.
- a96 2mo ago
  We used Lay as well, it's still behind me on the shelf there. I haven't done much comparison but it would be interesting to revisit these and see if I can make them stick better. Everything always feels familiar but I wouldn't really be able to use or explain many of the techniques given e.g. a blank piece of paper.

fny 2mo ago

Apparently, it's on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/linearalgebra0000fral/ https://archive.org/details/linearalgebra0000fral/

cmetzger4 2mo ago
Appears only the front-matter of the book is available on IA (limited preview); the content was omitted.

ACV001 2mo ago

agree, tried both and they are hard as a starter.

margalabargala 2mo ago
It may simply be that linear algebra is a difficult topic to become introduced to, and even the best teaching tools cannot make it easy.
- throw46363435 2mo ago
  Hard disagree. Linear algebra is one of the easiest topics in mathematics. In my experience, 3Blue1Brown videos are a great simple introduction. Beyond that, Kostrikin’s books.

genxy 2mo ago

What do you think of the other Fraleigh books?

tomjakubowski 2mo ago

Strang's OCW lectures are fantastic. His voice rings "combinations of columns" in my head almost ten years later whenever I do a matrix or matrix-vector multiply on paper. I found the textbook was a good accompaniment for the lecture course, but maybe not a good book to use on its own for self-study. (IIRC, when following the lectures, you jump around the chapters a bit out of order [or, you read the chapters non-linearly]. So the disorganized thing may be true.)

selimthegrim 2mo ago

I agree Strang is awful, the department I taught in used Fraleigh/Lay in the past. I used a book by A.O. Morris.

a96 2mo ago
We used Lay as well, it's still behind me on the shelf there. I haven't done much comparison but it would be interesting to revisit these and see if I can make them stick better. Everything always feels familiar but I wouldn't really be able to use or explain many of the techniques given e.g. a blank piece of paper.