Solving Ordinary Differential Equations I

"So far as I remember, I have never seen an Author''s Pre­ face which had any purpose but one - to furnish reasons for the publication of the Book. " (Mark Twain) "Gauss'' dictum, "when a building is completed no one should be able to see any trace of the scaffolding," is often used by mathematicians as an excuse for neglecting the motivation behind their own work and the history of their field. F...