Comments on: The most enlightening Calculus books

By: mathfreak

mathfreak — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:22:24 +0000

yes, that will help you prepare for Apostol’s Analysis or indeed baby Rudin.

By: JA

JA — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:47:16 +0000

Morris Kline’s book, “Calculus – An Intuitive and Physical Approach” should be mentioned. Also, the first edition of Abraham Schwartz’s Calculus and Analytic Geometry. Lastly, Calculus Made Easy by Thompson and Gardner should be on the list.
It was about 100 years AFTER calculus, differential equations , calculus of variations was developed that a few mathematicians (Cauchy, etc) got it into their heads that calculus was “in trouble.” Well, this is total bullshit. You mean that Newton, Euler, Lagrange, Laplace, Fermat, Leibnitz, Gauss – the list goes on and on – did not know what they were doing ??
The introduction of the epsilon-delta method in elementary calculus is absolutely idiotic. Calculus, etc. was invented/ discovered/ motivated by efforts to solve science problems. It was INTUITIVE !!
Frankly, aside from math majors – who relish “rigor” etc., – scientists, engineers, etc., have no need, no use for the more theoretical treatment of limits, etc.
It is too bad that science majors have to be taught math by math professors.

By: Anirudh

Anirudh — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:12:06 +0000

There isn’t anything ‘Western’ about Calculus. If you are talking about the ‘Newtonian’ Calculus it is Western… but Calculus did not begin there. It’s not that Newton woke up one day and invented Calculus. Calculus is a part of wider Real Analysis. Several civilizations around the world have contributed to that field! Those incremental developments led to Newton’s infinitesimal Calculus.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:35:07 +0000

Hi, thank you for very useful posts.

Is Apostol’s Calculus Vol 1 is enough as a pre-requisite for tackling Apostol’s Mathematical Analysis?

How do you compare between Apostol’s Mathematical Analysis and Rudin’s Principles of Mathematical Analysis?

By: Reginaldo Mondragon

Reginaldo Mondragon — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:17:13 +0000

I would appreciate if someone faxes or e-mails me some ten pages of Calculus, by Lyman M. Kells, 1947, Prentice Hall. These pages contain the results of the problems posted in the book. I can provide the page numbers. Thanks in advance,
R. Mondragón
reginaldoo@hotmail.com

By: JasonMode

JasonMode — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:47:44 +0000

Sorry, I better it clear……

Thompson’s book is named ” Calculus made easy”…… His book is good, especially for high school or junior high students

Others are really not worth reading

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 23:01:37 +0000

COurant is available free online. SO is apostle. Legitametly. They can be read in your browser. Google it.

By: JasonMode

JasonMode — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:39:49 +0000

Like Math Cheetah said, those “Calculus Made Easy” or some books like this are not worth reading.

By: Joe Nice

Joe Nice — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:54:33 +0000

A great intro to abstract algebra is WW Sawyers “Abstract Algebra: A Concrete Approach”
It’s hard to find….

By: Siraaj

Siraaj — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:26:31 +0000

Exactly! You echo my thoughts! This journey of discovery, and the meaning behind calculus is what I to am searching for – I could care less about techniques to pass the class type texts. I’m looking to really understand the evolution of problem solving that led to what is modern calculus.