Customer Reviews

Calculus Demystified : A Self Teaching Guide (Demystified)

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(15)

 

 

Let's say I am a totally evil person and I wanted to write a Calculus book that, disguised as a learning tool, would actually damage and destroy the ability for people to grasp and succeed in the subject. How would I go about doing it? Let's see, first off, I would take the simplest ideas in Calculus and either not explain them at all or see to it that the explanations are in the most ridiculously convoluted math jargon I could think of...and then I wouldn't explain what any of the jargon meant. Second, I would ask many questions that I would not provide the answers to so that the student can't see if they are getting it. Third, I would take great effort to call the book a "shorcut" and say it has an "easy to absorb" style to trick the innocent humans who buy it into thinking that THEY are simply lacking by not being able to grasp my mess. MWHAHAHAHAHAH! Well, guess what? Like all great ideas someone has already thought of all this (darn), and Calculus Demystified not only takes the crown for Calculus anti-learning, it incoporates all of the above ideas and more!

First, it must be mentioned that I have now taken a Calculus course and passed it with flying colors. Before the class was when I took an interest in this book, I decided to study up on the subject and purchased Calculus Demystified thinking it would help give me a head start. After about a week of "that", I went back to the store and purchased Calculus for Dummies, which then actually taught me Calculus and from there I proceeded to get an A in my class.

What exactly makes Calculus Demystified so horribly bad in comparison? It's not that the information is incorrect, now that I know what most of the ideas mean I paged back through it and can follow it. It's just that NOTHING is explained in a way that someone who didn't already know the subject could understand. For example, when you think of dealing with a line in Algebra you would probably assume the simpliest way to write it for discussion would be y=3x+7, right? Calculus Demystified would write this same line as y-4=3(x+1) and LEAVE it in that form. Now you may think, "that's ok, I know Algebra so how hard is it to convert it from there into a proper line so that I can easily identify the slope, y intercept, etc.", but what if you DIDN'T know Algebra and you were trying to learn what a line was for the first time from this example? This is the problem, I assume at least that most of us that buy this book don't know Calculus yet and this sort of confusing way of handling the math carries over into ALL of the Calculus ideas presented in this book. Everything is written in the most difficult to understand way possible. I especially love the way the author uses tons of different symbols for the derivative interchangeably (D/dx, F', etc.) without bothering to stop and tell you EXACTLY what the symbols are and why they are presented differently from problem to problem if they stand for the same exact idea? There is a reason, but you won't find a decent explanation for it in this book.

This crappiness doesn't just stop with the math either. I really love the idea of the "You try it" questions, none of which have ANY answers provided for them. This is inexcuseable for a "SELF TEACHING GUIDE" as this book calls itself. Who is supposed to correct your answers for you? A teacher? The teacher is you! I guess we are just supposed to pretend we are getting them right even if we have no idea if we actually are getting it (just like we can read some of the problems in the book and pretend that we are understanding Calculus even if we have no idea if we are actually getting it). How someone can write a 342 page book and not consider even for a moment that the target audience NEEDS the answers for these questions to be of any use whatsoever is beyond me.

But the greatest sin this book makes is in the content itself. This is supposed to be a book to "ease into the subject one simple step at a time" with a "user friendly, accessible style" as indicated on the back of the book. It is not at all this way. The book even states that "Calculus has two main aspects: differential calculus and integral calculus." The first alarm that should have gone off is that both ideas come and go within 100 pages (pg. 57-122 pretty much is it) with the rest being advanced applications of the ideas that you probably weren't able to learn in the short summaries given of all the important basic concepts. For example, for the explanation for finding the derivative in advanced cases (Product, Quotient, and Chain rules) you are a given a whole ONE page to learn all three ideas. You are expected to be able to have mastered these ideas and be able to solve complicated problems using them (without leaving room to make growing pain mistakes) starting on the very next page! A black hole couldn't assimilate those ideas that fast. The chapter on Integration is even worse, you are given a PARAGRAPH to understand the idea completely and are thrust immediately into Antiderivatives, skipping the Reimann Sum and Definite Integral building block explanation steps (that are supposed to lead you into the idea of Antiderivatives) almost entirely.

In the end, once you know Calculus, the book does have some entertainment value. As you page through it and look at the way the ideas are handled, you can't help but laugh at times when you see how ridiculously complicated he is making it. But then again, if you already know Calculus why would you buy a self teaching Calculus book to begin with?

I haven't used calculus in over 30 years. I wanted to brush up on the subject. I bought this book. WHAT A MISTAKE!!

At first I thought I was getting denser with age. But eventually I realized that it was, in fact, this book. It is a horror. Even though I have had four semesters of calculus, little in this book looked familiar or made sense. If you are intimidated by mathematics or calculus, this book will convince you that you are inept. Don't believe it.

I returned this book and after some research I found two books that are wonderful.

"Calculus For Dummies" by Mark Ryan is a really great book. It is simple and direct. The subject is covered with humor and a lot of insights. I wish this book was available when I was studying the subject years ago. I honestly believe that I understand calculus much better today than when I graduated from college. There is an optional "Calculus Workbook For Dummies" also by Mark Ryan if you want some problem exercises (there are none in the book).

"Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus P. Thompson and updated by Martin Gardner (a true genius). Although the book was originally published nearly 100 years ago, Mr. Gardner's updates have maintained the book as one of the best in print in this subject.

If you think calculus is a difficult subject, this book will only convince you further. This book may be good for someone trying to brush up on calculus skills, but for those trying to learn it for the first time, it will do nothing but confuse. If you want a more easy to follow introduction to calculus, try Silvanus P Thompson's 'Calculus Made Easy'

I consider myself a pretty smart kid. I had straight As throughout high school and I'm currently on a 1 year homestay in Japan. I've always been good at Math and science, able to pick up abstract concepts very easily.

I decided to learn Calculus on my own before I start Cegep, as something to do in my spare time. That being said, I'm having a very hard time with this book. I CAN get through it, but it seems needlessly difficult.

The explanations in here aren't the best for the everyday reader. Many concepts and ideas seem to have been omitted, leaving the reader wondering if he's skipped something important or didn't understand well. And the things which are explained are rigorous definitions that just aren't accessible.

The book is littered with very hard 'Try it yourself' questions to which the book doesn't give any answers, and even the answers provided for the excersises and final exam are not developped in a way so that you can understand if you get it wrong.

There are many other Calculus books out there, so stay away from this one. I guess this book may be alright for someone who just needs a quick revision, but if you're starting from scratch, this book is terrible

And I'd like to point out I was releived to see that other people hated this book too ^_^ I'm glad it's not just me...

I'm currently in my junior year of college and I have not taken a math class since my junior year of high school. This semester, however, I will be taking calculus. I'm a fairly intelligent person (not a genius by any means) and was able to teach myself college algebra and pre-calc from the "Demystified" series texts without too much trouble (the algebra and pre-calc texts are phenomenal by the way). However, reading this book was like hitting a brick wall crotch first. In fact, I couldn't read it: I gave up after the first few pages and desperately flipped through the remainder of the tome to see if I could find some kind of daylight at the end of the tunnel. None was found. The text was very techinal and seemed to really stress rigor. The book was downright teaming with rigorous definitions and wretched mathematical symbolism: it was more difficult to understand than my Calc text (Single Variable Calculus: Concepts and Contexts by Stewart). I literally thought Calculus was going to be the death of me until I picked up "Claculus for Dummies" and "How to Ace Calculus" (both of which are hilarious). Wow! Calculus can be interesting and fun and understandable. Its almost as if the joy of claculus is a secret that "Calculus Demystified" won't let you in on. Obviously, I recommend that you check out one of the other texts mentioned above unless of course, you have already taken Calculus and are looking for a CHALLENGING refresher. This book was no help to a beginner like me.

There comes a time for many instructors when they have been studying upper level esoterica for so long that they forget what it's like to not know the basics of a subject. They assume that since the subject is obvious to them, it must be obvious to everyone. Unfortunately, this seems to be the case with "Calculus Demystified". While this book may be solid review for a former math major, a good introduction it's not.

Some may say that calculus is an inherently boring subject - this book will do nothing to disabuse you of that notion. The writing style is almost a parody of the stultifying math teacher who puts everyone to sleep. I have quite a few math texts that I use for my tutoring business, and this is by far the least accessible of the lot.

For the calculus novice, I'd recommend "How to Ace Calculus: the Streetwise Guide" as a far more readable text. For the more advanced student who wishes to review the basics or to supplement his or her Calc II or III course, "Calculus Demystified" would fit the bill.

If there was any way to sue for publishing a book that is a complete lie from start to finish, this guy should be sued.

I have never seen such a worthless book that advertises itself as the best secret on earth for learning calculus. I have been out of school for a number of years and bought this book based on its lies on the cover and introduction to brush up on calculus. It is now worth nothing more to me than firewood. The guy that wrote it must be a teacher in a leading university somewhere that has never had a job doing anything but boring students stupid.

I can not begin to tell you how upset I am that I spent 1 dime on this book. It will make you more upset that you spent the time to read the introduction. You won't make it past chapter one before tosing it!!! Steven Krantz, go beary your head in the sand dude!!! Thats were it was when you wrote this piece of crap!!!

I have to agree with most of the negative comments posted here. I took several courses in calculus in college but wanted to relearn it quickly. Instead of dragging out my old texts, I bought of copy of this book. Big mistake. The volume is written for mathematicians. There are few practice problems, and the ones that are included do not have solutions! The chapter exams consist of extremely difficult problems, making the use of this text discouraging. I ended up buying Calculus for Dummies and using my old texts to get problem sets.

I would add that I also bought the 'Demystified' volumes on linear algebra and differential equations, and both of them were quite good. The calculus volume seems to be a dud, though.

This book was helpful with understanding the concepts. However, there are "you try it" problems through out the book with no answers or solutions so you have no idea if you did it correctly. I would recommend using this book only as a secondary method of learning.

This is not a book for learning calculus.

It seriously confuses and complicates simple principles by explaining them in notation only a mathematician could love.

Then it gets worse. The author periodically presents the reader with a "Try it yourself problem" that ought to be called a "Puzzle" because it is more complex than any previous example, and no correct solution is tendered. This only leaves the reader wondering if he got it right after all. It shakes the student's confidence, which leads to second guessing destroying any positive reinforcement crucial to learning.

Not only is it frustrating, it is detrimental to progress since the student is left on his own to confirm that he has properly grasped the concept and is ready to move on. And what if if the student has taught himself incorrectly....?

Some teachers enjoy showing off how well they have mastered a difficult subject. Steven Krantz (the author) seems more interested in demonstrating his own grasp of mathematic notation than teaching the subject of calculus to his students.

If I wanted to discourage a student from ever taking any more math, I would send them a copy of this book. On the other hand, the information is all there and it is complete and correct. The format is one that serves well for a for the highly advanced student seeking a challenging brush up, or the casual mathematic genius looking for the equivalent of a crossword puzzle book in calculus. For us mere mortals, don't even open the book. It will do more harm than good.