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Calculus, Single Variable

Calculus, Single Variable

List Price: $113.95
Your Price: $113.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Horrendous Calculus Book
Review: This is quite possibly one of the worst books with which to learn Calculus. There are only sparse examples, and the majority of ones within have virtually no application to the problem sets for each section. "Calculus" by Thomas and Finney is an incredible book by comparison, with many useful examples and detailed explanations of concepts. If you are required to purchase this book for a course, go ahead and buy it (then sell it like I am doing now), but also look into a supplementary text by Thomas and Finney!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Book Ever
Review: This is quite possibly the worst textbook that I have ever used in mathematics. I think that the people who wrote it meant well, but their final outcome was horrendous. In fact, the book is so intractably flawed that I do not believe any amount of revision will ever save it.

The main problem is that this book assumes too much from the student. That is not to say that the student should not be challenged, but they must first understand and comprehend the material. As I worked through Calculus II with this book, I was confounded time and again by the poor examples and explanations of how to undertake calculations. Even the examples at the beginning of each section are poorly solved, with many omitted steps, which leave even the best students shaking their heads in disbelief.

After struggling through several chapters of this book I went out and purchased Howard Anton's classic calculus treatise. Once I was able to actually comprehend how to solve the problems-and was able to understand how the problem solving techniques were developed- I was able to understand the theory. This seems like the logical way of learning to me, but then again I don't have a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard like the authors.

So, if you have [money] to frivolously spend, I would recommend that you buy Howard Anton's book and also this one, for a slightly "deeper" understanding of calculus. If you are a poor undergraduate like me though, just buy Anton's book and get the homework questions your professor assigns from the library or another student.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No no no no no!
Review: This is the book I used for my introductory sequence in calculus, and, unfortunately I also used the multivariable version for my vector calculus course. I cannot say enough bad things about this book! I can't believe that I have to give it even 1 star! I am a physics major, and although that may color my opinion, this book in no way prepares one for higher level mathematics. I found myself forced to review the concepts that I was supposed to have learned, such as Fourier series, and so forth. The only way that I was able to do calculus-based physics was by learning the applied mathematics from the physics text itself! Fortunately, I had a great professor for my single and multiple variable course (he hated the book, too!), and I was able to ace them, but it would have been easier without this book. Avoid it like the plague.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: awesome
Review: this is the only math book i have come across that excites me. it's very conceptual which may explain why some people, who just want a text that tells them how to do questions, find it bad. this book has helped me visualise and understand and apply calculus to real life. something i can't say of other books.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Calc 1 with Houghes-Hallett
Review: This is the poorest calculus book I have ever had to work with. It gives poor explanations of the subject matter and the examples it offers provide no insight into how to use the thereoms of the section. The question are often esoteric and confusing. I feel that I have become stupider for having used this textbook.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: awful awful awful
Review: this textbook is very vague and not clear on the explanation of concepts. The preface says that the authors wished to create a book where students could not derive the answers to exercises from looking at worked out examples. Well golly how convenient. It seems to me it's just another lame brained excuse to hand out a worthless book. My advice don't waste your money purchasing this book. Instead go to a used bookstore and buy another calculus book.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A FEW strengths, but mostly weak coverage of the subject.
Review: You know, I think the Calculus Reformers mean well, but they seem to be lost in mathematics dreamland, where everyone has time to read and absorb uninteresting abstractions.To be fair,the authors have good explainations on certain things, like bounds and continuity, unfortunately that was in the appendix, where they had the good sense for once to be brief! No, buy yourself a real calculus textbook, like the one by George F. Simmons, who will teach you what is really going on, providing examples and problems that are designed to teach, without being abominably boring like this book.


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