Customer Reviews

Calculus with Analytic Geometry

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Reading some of the other reviews, I felt compelled to write. I used the third edition for all three courses in calculus I took at UMCP, and had Dr. Gulick for the second one. I would suggest that any terrapins who need to take the course do it with him, because he FOLLOWS THE TEXT EXACTLY. This means that you can actually skip an occasional class: if you do the reading and twice as many problems as assigned. But about the book...Honestly, I cannot see how anyone could fault it. I have seen physics, engineering, business, even French majors reading it with out difficulty. Now the problems, they can be tough. But complaining about them is like complaining the weights in the gym are heavy.Calculus, like any other skill, can only be acquired by effort, by doing. If you are willing to put a little in, you will get a lot out of this book. If you expect to sit back and subliminally absorb it, no text will be of much use to you.

In the main text book it states that the problems were checked, yet this solution manual has so many errors I have to wonder what grade the reviewer received in his calculus class. Some answers are wrong, and some completely misinterpret the entire problem.

I used this text when I attended The University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP.) In fact, I had a class with one of the authors. Since then, I have graduated and had a quite successful technological career. I have tutored many people from other schools in calculus and I took a related class at MIT during one semester.

Therefore, I have seen many textbooks and have a fair basis for comparison.

In my view, the textbook has little value relative to texts used at other schools (perhaps that's why it's not more widely used.) The primary value of this textbook is that it packs three semesters of stuff into one volume. That being said, even the "Calculus for Dummies" book would be better in getting you through enough material that is the equivalent of the first 2/3 of the Gulick text.

The text is awkward.

Further, can you believe that in class, one of the authors had us do the unanswered problem sets (every other problem had solutions), but wouldn't hand back the graded work? All we got back was a letter grade. There was little feedback at all as to what we did or did not understand. I needn't describe how happy the students weren't about that.

To do well, you really need to find another text and do many extra problems on your own with solution sets provided.

Having seen the texts used at other schools, I did feel a bit cheated.

Don't take my word for it. Definitely COMPARE other texts with this one before you buy it...just borrow a copy from a math or engineering library somewhere and judge for yourself.

If, however, you are taking calculus at UMCP, well, I guess you are stuck buying "The Brick." Just do as many extra problems as you can.

The depth of content, description and examples is truly lacking in this text. Further, the order of material is not always in a progressive fashion, instead attempting to force the full understanding of the previous skills by requiring mastery for the next. This is a signifigant hinderance to someone who may not have a strong skill in one topic but could in the next

This book is by far the worst book I have ever had to buy for any class I have ever taken. I am not sure who is to blame here, because this is the second book that I have had to buy from this publisher. Both books really stink, but "Calculus With Analytic Geometry" makes road kill smell like the perfume section at Macy's. First of all the book is not laid out in a way that it clearly explains the topics. Second of all, and this probably should be first, there are very few examples, and the examples that are given use arbitrary variables, so the examples are hardly different than the definitions...so why have examples at all! I would strongly recommend "Calculus" Seventh Edition Larson-Hostetler-Edwards. While it costs nearly twice as much, it is more than worth the extra money if you want to pass your classes. As for this book, I threw it away, because I did not want someone else to become a victim of this book.

From 1987-1993 this book was the Calculus I,II & III textbook at Washington State University (WSU-Go Cougs). If I was able to solve every problem in the book and tutor others in Multi-variable Calculus then I'm sure it was more my being well taught and less my skill in Mathematics. Yes Math was and still is one of my strongest subjects but having the Thomas Finney Calculus Edition 7 book alongside this textbook I will not hesitate to choose Robert Ellis & Denny Gulick for a much more thorough explanation of Theory with a broad variety of application that reinforce the theorems until one can do this stuff so well one can see the answer nearly as quick as one can simplify it down to its final result.

Thomas/Finney is an excellent addition and combined one should never be concerned with Differential Equations and Vector Analysis.

Its been 10 years and having switched to Computer Science I am now just getting back to applying Mechanical Engineering with CS and I can say I'm glad I had this background.

I didn't give the book 5 stars because no book on Mathematical Theory is Flawless.

This is intended largely as a response to the review by mjgrey, above.

Having had the fortune to take the class for which this text was intended with one of the authors, I can say that the order in which material is presented makes a lot of sense - for the way the author chooses to take the class. Some faculty, especially new faculty, may have some difficulty scheduling their classes around its ordering scheme, and those attempting to use the book to teach themselves the material would probably be quickly lost.

However, it should be noted that the author says as much in his introduction, and suggests skipping around as necessary to fit the topics as they are being introduced in the class syllabus. If the book is used as it is intended, and the instructor takes a reasonable amount of care, the ordering of topics becomes a much less critical issue.

I have found this to be an excellent volume to turn back to when basic concepts of calculus are called up (as they are time and again in statistical analysis).

I heavily rely on textbooks for my classes. I read James Stewart's book (Single Variable Calculus) practically cover to cover, and was able to get an "A" while missing 50% of the lectures. For Calculus III, we switched to Gulick's book, and my previously successful strategy turned into a disaster.

Gulick's writing is very hard to follow. The textbook spends very little time in helping to develop an intuitive understanding of the material. Instead, he gives a rigorous mathematical definition of a concept, provides the proof, and does an example. It is very difficult to learn things for the first time this way. I figured this out too late, skipped lecture too often, and midway through the semester ended up extremely behind.

Then I checked out Stewart's "Multivariable Calculus" from the library... problem solved. It is much easier to follow, and I was able to use it to catch up in the course. I think Gulick's book actually has better (and more) examples in it than Stewart's, but Stewart's book is far better at teaching the material for the first time. In short, if you are assigned Gulick's book, make sure you go to lecture.

On a different note, this book weighs about 5,000 pounds.

Very well-written book: it has real world examples and clear explanations and proofs. I also have a solutions manual for this book, which is very helpful.

Many of the explanations in this book are not written clearly. I had to spend quite a bit of time deciphering the material, as it was not clearly explained in class, either. This book in conjunction with a prof who is a good teacher would be find, but if you are on your own for learning from the book, it is not very effective.