A First Course in Calculus (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

Rating:
Summary: Calculus for beginning college students
Review: I needed to bring my high school calculus up to speed for first year physics studies and found this to be the only book which covered the necessary ground. The material is presented in a thorough manner with the great majority of topics shown with proofs. The book is very well organized and there are abundant worked examples. Some problems are offered which deal with matters not covered in the text, but usually there is a worked example given among the answers. Lang deals with the material in a clear fashion so that the subject matter is usually not difficult to follow.On the negative side I can say that there is no human touch between the covers. His sole attempt at humor is an item following a list of problems in which he notes "relax". In the foreword he exhibits his firm belief that many freshmen arrive unprepared for college calculus, which may be true. But nowhere in the book is there a note of encouragement, so it cannot be described as reader friendly. Finally the index is pathetic--just three pages for a book of 624 pages, so that finding things can be frustrating.