Customer Reviews

Calculus: Complete Course

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am surprised at the poor reviews of this text. Though some complain that there is a "lack of explanation" in proofs and in exercises in the study guide, I prefer Adams's approach as it forces the reader to think while reading. Working through a proof or example should not be done in order to memorize one line of thought but rather to *learn* the concepts and as an exercise in itself. I do not think that Adams is overly demanding--he pushes the reader, but not too hard. The exercises are well thought out and often challenging, and the text is extremely helpful. I do admit that some problems and examples took me quite some time to figure out, but the time invested was well worth it. I would suggest that you take a look at the book and study guide for yourself and not to take the reviews of it too seriously (borrow it from your university library). This text is especially suitable for an honours class in first year calculus. It is perhaps in between something like Edwards and Penney and Spivak: not as easy as the former, but not as demanding as the latter.

I was very surprised to see the poor score of this book. I think it is great. It is very well set out and cleverly leads the reader by the hand to ideas and theories of calculus. The chapters read well and diagrams illustrate the ideas effectively. I have used it throughout my maths degree and is also helpful for other maths topics such as linear programming. All my class mates agree that it is a classic text!

How many times after you have read a math or physics book that you want to just go to the author and tell him/her that IT'S NOT OBVIOUS! Well, this is one of those books. Granted, the exercises are fairly well thought up and present a challenge to the reader, but the author, in his solutions (in the solutions manual) too often write down one equation and skip to the last step and the reader is left wondering, "what happened?" The same can be said of the proofs in the book. The author teaches at the school where I go to and from what I've heard from others who've had him, is a pretty good prof, but this book is just too assuming of the reader. Try Spivak, or for multivariable calculus, Stewart's text.

I really like this book. It is crystal clear and practical. I am studying electrical ingineering and I find this book to be my number one reference and math study book. If you need to go deep into math and like to study long proofs, then you can probably get something 10 times as big to study. To all of us who thinks that it is fine that someone can do the proofs, but don't have time to read and learn long proofs this book is the thing. At the technical university where I am studying it is used as a mathbook, and my peers find it very clear too (exept some students to whom nothing is clear), and as you probably can see on my grammer english is not our native language !

Having worked through two thirds of the book I have found it extremely frustrating. The main problem is the lack of defined examples, poor proofs and discussion of material that is superfluous to the subject matter. The layout is also extremely poor which was evidenced by the large number of revisions between edition 3 and 4. To understand just how poor the proofs and descriptions are have a comparison to Thomas/Finney or Anton, the number of pages devoted to each section is usually a third greater and more detailed. The greatest frustration is the poor referencing of examples and proofs to past proofs or examples (re: Howard Anton).

In conclusion its a great reference because it covers the many areas of calculus but as an educational text it is most unhelpful.

It's a very good book to start learning higher mathmatics

Why would you buy an out of date edition from a reptuable company because they have not bothered to get the new edition from the publisher?

Nice pictures, too many pages, too long words, too many pictures, too many Vretblads.

Well this textbook, has to be the most confusing thing in the world. Usually textbooks start off with the easiest problems first but not Mr. Adams.

He decided to not only put the hardest question first but also to tie in concepts that were used like 3 chapters ago. And for rotations he justs throws you some equations and doesn't even bother to tell you how they work, or what does it even mean.

The only thing which is good about this book, is if you get the solution manual

A text for a calculas course should not include this one. Although there are good examples, for a general understanding how calculas works with some applications. This is not recommended for applied mathematics.