This textbook is for the standard, one-semester, junior-senior course that often goes by the title "Elementary Partial Differential Equations" or "Boundary Value Problems". The audience consists of students in mathematics, engineering, and the physical sciences.

The topics include derivations of some of the standard models of mathematical physics (e.g., the heat equation, the wave equation, and Laplace's equation) and methods for solving those equations on unbounded and bounded domains (transform methods and eigenfunction expansions). Prerequisites include multivariable calculus and elementary differential equations.

The text differs from other texts in that it is a brief treatment (about 200 pages); yet it provides coverage of the main topics usually studied in the standard course as well as an introduction to using computer algebra packages to solve and understand partial differential equations.