The proposed book is one of a series called "A Course of Higher
Mathematics and Mathematical Physics" edited by A. N. Tikhonov, V. A.
Ilyin and A. G. Sveshnikov. The book is based on a lecture course which,
for a number of years now has been taught at the Physics Department and
the Department of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow
State University. The exposition reflects the present state of the
theory of differential equations, as far as it is required by future
specialists in physics and applied mathematics, and is at the same time
elementary enough. An important part of the book is devoted to
approximation methods for the solution and study of differential
equations, e.g. numerical and asymptotic methods, which at the present
time play an essential role in the study of mathematical models of
physical phenomena. Less attention is paid to the integration of
differential equations in elementary functions than to the study of
algorithms on which numerical solution methods of differential equations
for computers are based.