Calculus : Applications and Technology (with CD-ROM)

Rating:
Summary: An OK calculus book
Review: I'm not really sure if this book stands out that much from the countless calc books that have been written, but the selection of problems is quite good. We use this book at Santa Barbara City college. It is a good book to teach from because the overall coverage of topics is good. Some of my students have complained that the book is hard to read. Well, I thought that too when I first learned from Larson and Hostetler. If you are are a student reading this, I would reccomend Stuart's Calculus book over this one. There is one thing I need to comment on that definitely has confused some of my students. Mr. Tomastik doesn't feel the need to devote a section of the text to partial fraction expansions, but he uses those ideas in the text, especially in the sections on solving differential equations!!

Rating:
Summary: Only If You Already Know Calculus...
Review: Unfortunately you may be required to buy this book for your class, and have no say in whether it should be used. But if the option is there, my suggestion is you run as far as possible from this text. Unless you already have a good knowledge of calculus, you may find yourself thoroughly and ridiculously lost as you are led through this book. In my experience with mathematics texts, most follow a predictable pattern; most sample problems will follow a step-by-step explanation of how the problem is solved, while explaining WHY the problem is solved in that particular manner. Through its entirety, this text leaves out the WHY. Being that this book is not used for higher level calculus courses (at my university, it is a requirement for a freshman year math course), it is perplexing that it is not written to cater towards its audience. Assuming you are not a mathematician or do not absolutely love math, this particular book leaves one feeling mentally challenged.