Calculus for Cats

Rating:
Summary: The cats have succeeded
Review: According to the authors, cats want to keep people confused about calculus, and I think that cats helped to write this book. Actually, I have been reading a lot of math and science concept books, trying to find any that really clarify the ideas, processes, and applications; technique is best learned with a good textbook. I did not find the analogies in Calculus for Cats to be particularly engaging or enlightening, but this short book does act as a primer of sorts. I would have enjoyed this book more if the authors had focused on interesting real-world examples rather than on mouse-catching examples.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Math Review
Review: Calculus isn't my subject. I found its study frustrating, and the authors of Calculus for cats obviously sympathize with my plight. I had read their Algebra Unplugged which helped to refresh my memory even about the more than basic principles of that study. Approaching calculus, I had a lot less confidence. The nice thing about this book is that you don't need confidence in your math abilities to enjoy it. The authors postulate that calculus was invented by cats who have a vested interest in keeping the real meaning of the discipline, not to mention its practice, out of human hands. Math books are written to obscure understanding not enhance it, and the cats love it. Cats the authors explain are constantly scurrying after mice, and they use the calculations of calculus to catch them. Each function, or as your math book would say, each f(x) (or y), is really a mouse that the cat is scurrying to catch. You can too. There are many amusing images, notably a cat at the center of a circle holding a long rope with another cat holding the other end skating around it. The authors also get down to much nitty gritty about notation and explain why different subjects like physics or economics or even different branches of pure mathematics use different notations to mean the same thing. It's all stuff that's very useful for a student to know ahead of time. (It helps to know that you will study second derivatives after you study first derivatives for example. That is it helps to have a comprehensible outline before you start the class.) It doesn't substitute for the calculus class itself, but I got a much better sense of what calculus' aims really are and how it works. Now if only I could figure out how to tackle those nasty little exponents.

Rating:
Summary: Made me want to sign up for Calculus!
Review: This book was amazing. It took something that we, from the outside of the math world, find enormously complex and confusing and through imagery and the imagination of the authors, made it understandable and accessible. I recommend it highly, especially to anyone who is about to take calculus for the first time. If you read this, you will be able to conceptualize what you are learning about....essential to truly understanding mathematics.

Rating:
Summary: Made me want to sign up for Calculus!
Review: This book was amazing. It took something that we, from the outside of the math world, find enormously complex and confusing and through imagery and the imagination of the authors, made it understandable and accessible. I recommend it highly, especially to anyone who is about to take calculus for the first time. If you read this, you will be able to conceptualize what you are learning about....essential to truly understanding mathematics.