Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, but don't read it late at night!
Review: This is one of the best technical books that I have every read. The book introduces Calculus at the right pace and in a way that makes it very interesting. My only criticism is don't read it late at night, or you will lose a lot of sleep. I have been reading it most nights for the last few weeks and I find it thoroughly addictive.It has been a long time since I studied Calculus and I didn't relish coming up to speed with it again. This book brought it back quickly but this time made it something really interesting.
Rating:
Summary: If you want to understand calculus, get this book
Review: I went thru 5 years of college, emerging with degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I never really understood the foundations of calculus, but managed to pass the math classes by learning by rote. Years later, I discovered this book, and it was truely a revelation. I now know what 5 years of high-level education failed to teach me. This book explains things in ways that my other math books never did. If I'd had this when I entered college, math classes wouldn't have been such a struggle. If you're about to begin taking calculus classes, I recommend that you read this first. It'll make your life much easier.
Rating: 
Summary: Some clarification required
Review: Though this book has much to recommend it, I have one gripe. The section entitled "How to deal with sines and cosines" 'proves' that d sin(theta)/d theta=cos(theta), with an accompanying picture showing sin(theta) against theta, with theta in degrees. The problem is that the above relation is only true when theta is measured in radians. The text assumes the reader is familiar with radians, which is certainly assuming too much for the beginner. Perhaps the next edition could clarify these points. I enjoyed the rest of the book. Incidentally, I see that only 2 out of 6 people liked this review. I assume that the majority disagree with my comments about the derivative of sin(theta). I'd appreciate it if they could point out where they think I'm going wrong. For those of you who aren't sure, why not try taking the numerical derivative on a calculator: [sin(theta+dtheta)-sin(theta)]/dtheta, for dtheta=0.001 degrees say. Does this approximate cos(theta) if the calculator is in DEG mode, or if the calculator is in RAD mode? Is this difference clear from reading the book?
Rating:
Summary: English and math? Am I in heaven?
Review: Well, Calculus was coming up in a nice warm summer semester and the last thing on my mind was learning a foreign language. Well, luckly I happened to stumble upon this book. It is written by someone who thought the same way all the rest of us college students think - why are text books, especially math ones, written in a form as to not allow us to learn what they are speaking of? Well, this book is quite the oppsite of those 40 lbs text books you buy in the college book stores. It is written in a way my mother could understand (no really, she understood it), and helped me out through first semester calculus. This book is a great study guide to go along with any calc book, I really can't stress the fact enough that this math book is easy to understand.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Introduction
Review: "Considering how many fools can calculate, it is suprirsing that it should be thought either a difficult or a tedious task for any other fool to learn to master the same tricks." (Thompson, S. P.) I'm interested in physics but I stuck a bit in my readings because I couldn't understand differential calculus. After some time tryin' to learn diff. calculus alone with books like by the author N. Piskounov, I found this one, and it is exaclty what everyone that does not have patience nor interest in hard mathematics but need or want to learn diff./int. calculus need. Thompson really tries to make it very, very easy. Its really strange that anyone that is in high school does not understand it - as you probably could see in another review. Thompson won't try to impress you with obscure mathematics - famous 'it is obvious to note that' when nothing is that clear at all! - but will try to show you the full meaning of calculus from different points, so that if you didn't understand something well even after reading it couple of times you can go further and understand it with other approuch. In addition, Thompson shows the full meaning of differential calculus, so it won't appear as a pure, cold mathematics, but something which is very useful for solving many problems.
Rating:
Summary: Good general introduction presented in a manageable format..
Review: Last week I was re-reading this classic that I had in an old edition (1965). I then began the current edition and found that Gardner's contribution definitely upgrades this book from moderately good to very good. I have been using this book for years as an entertaining read specially with maxima and minima concepts. This current edition has some of the language updated to conform with modern usage. The book still inspires me to dig deeper into the calculus. The writing is succinct and the illustrations are quite good. After reading this book delve into James Stewart's Calculus.
Rating:
Summary: Calculus understandable
Review: As an MBA with no mathematical background studying derivatives, I am not interested in mathematical properties per se, only in the application, while a mathematician would be interested in improving mathematics (via therems and proofs). Derivatives pushed me to study the mathematics of derivatives. Calculus Made Easy is especially good for people who need the "big picture". People who want to "understand" calculus to the extend as to applying the principles of calculus. The book is fantastic, but you must be mathematical eager and know some algebra. Many other books on calculus go too far. Are too broad for the reader who wants to get the basics in an concise way. This book gives you in over 300 pages the "big picture" and certainly a great foundation for further studies.
Rating: 
Summary: Over Rated!
Review: I don't understand why this book has such high ratings. It starts out good, but then loses it's consistency. It becomes rather difficult to understand early in the book. Like most all technical books, the more advanced the subjects become, the more horrible they explain them. I would recomend looking for a different book if your trying to learn calculus. I thought this book was terrible.
Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: I study calculus for my 'A' Level Further Math course. Reading the book prior, I can follow lectures and tutorials with less difficulty. My questions are easily answered by referring to this highly readable book. One explores calculus beside the author. No "talking down"; the book imparts knowledge in a witty and irreverent manner. The version I use is 1974 reprint. In spite of its age, this version is still very useful, though the symbology is dated. I am certain the latest version is every bit as good as mine.
Rating:
Summary: Simple concepts, elegantly presented
Review: I am a linguist without much math background. I wanted to understand the concepts of calculus and to get familiar with the mathmatical expressions. I am very happy to have found this book. What I thought was a difficult task turned out to be easy and unexpectedly enjoyable. I invested some weekend spare time reading this book. the reward is that now many technical reading on speech and natural language processing become much easier.
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