Calculus: Early Transcendentals [Hardcover]

James Stewart (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0534393217 | ISBN-13: 978-0534393212 | Publication Date: December 24, 2002 | Edition: 5

This edition of James Stewart's best-selling calculus book has been revised with the consistent dedication to excellence that has characterized all his books. Stewart's Calculus is successful throughout the world because he explains the material in a way that makes sense to a wide variety of readers. His explanations make ideas come alive, and his problems challenge, to reveal the beauty of calculus. Stewart's examples stand out because they are not just models for problem solving or a means of demonstrating techniques--they also encourage readers to develp an analytic view of the subject. This edition includes new problems, examples, and projects. This version of Stewart's book introduced exponential and logarithmic functions in the first chapter and their limits and derivatives are found in Chapters 2 and 3.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

James Stewart received his M.S. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He did research at the University of London and was influenced by the famous mathematician George Polya at Stanford University. Stewart is currently Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University, and his research field is harmonic analysis. Stewart is the author of a best-selling calculus textbook series published by Cengage Learning--Brooks/Cole, including CALCULUS, CALCULUS: EARLY TRANSCENDENTALS, and CALCULUS: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS, as well as a series of precalculus texts.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1320 pages
• Publisher: Brooks Cole; 5 edition (December 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534393217
• ISBN-13: 978-0534393212
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Stewart received the M.S. degree from Stanford University and the Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. After two years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of London, he became Professor of Mathematics at McMaster University. His research has been in harmonic analysis and functional analysis. Stewart's books include a series of high school textbooks as well as a best-selling series of calculus textbooks. He is also co-author, with Lothar Redlin and Saleem Watson, of a series of college algebra and precalculus textbooks. Translations of his books include those in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Greek, and Indonesian.

A talented violinst, Stewart was concertmaster of the McMaster Symphony Orchestra for many years and played professionally in the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. Having explored connections between music and mathematics, Stewart has given more than 20 talks worldwide on Mathematics and Music and is planning to write a book that attempts to explain why mathematicians tend to be musical.

Stewart was named a Fellow of the Fields Institute in 2002 and was awarded an honorary D.Sc. in 2003 by McMaster University. The library of the Fields Institute is named after him. The James Stewart Mathematics Centre was opened in October, 2003, at McMaster University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Three semesters in one book is a bit too much, October 5, 2005

By 

Michael D. Sadowitz "guyver_86" (Las Vegas, NV United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Calculus: Early Transcendentals (Hardcover)

I attend UNLV and when I took Calc I, II and III a few years ago, this is the book we used. Its coverage for 1st semester calc up to the beginning of integrals is decent. However, they needlessly complicate some of the more advanced integration techniques for 2nd semester calc. I found it difficult material to get through without falling asleep, and I love math.

Its biggest weakness is in vector calculus. The coverage is sparse and lacking at times, and overly detailed in others. For instance, surface and volume integration were very important to me as an engineering student, but there just weren't enough examples and no "weird" geometries at all. Then, their coverage of planes, which for me is not all that important, was tremendously detailed.

You probably don't have much of a choice if you're using this book for a course, but if you're planning on taking courses like electromagnetics, I'd recommend supplementing the vector calc portion with an E&M book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Great, September 16, 2004

By 

S. Gaysinskaya - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Calculus: Early Transcendentals (Hardcover)

I am using the book for my multivariable calculus class. Five examples -- vaguely related to the exercises -- are not enough to learn the material. This book is good as a reference, once you have already learned the material. However, attempting to independently learn topics is very difficult. While the solutions to the examples are thorough, they do not explain the reasoning in choosing a particular approach. It leaves the reader thinking... "I know how to do the example, but I surely don't know how to approach this exercise." More thorough explanations of technique rather than pure examples would be very helpful.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very useful, May 22, 2005

By 

William Meyer (Alpharetta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Calculus: Early Transcendentals (Hardcover)

I have taken two semesters of calculus using this book, and am most disappointed and frustrated. It may be a good volume if you are coming into the class fresh from AP Calculus in high school (I was not), but if you have taken algebra and pre-calculus in college, and then proceed to this, as I did, the learning curve is very steep.

The exposition in Stewart's volume is of irregular quality. Sometimes clear, it is, at others, obtuse, and in some sections utterly fails to illuminate the topic.

The exercise sets seem well-designed for someone majoring in math, and whose experience includes high school algebra. For those students, this will be more review than new learning. In each set of exercises, the problems seem to be trying to force new epiphanies, with each new problem. For my part, a less steep curve would work far better, and I have found it necessary to acquire an alternate volume as a backup. My instructor has also observed that the exercises are overly complex, and that they rarely contain any problems suited for inclusion on an exam.

The software included is rather poor in quality, and will fail to work at all unless you accept the default installation path.

Finally, the binding is not up to the task of holding together a 1,200+ page book, and mine is falling apart, despite my having always carried it in a padded bag. At the price, that is unforgiveable.

As you will almost certainly be buying this for a college class, you have no choice -- the school will have selected for you. But be advised, you may need a second book to explain this one. Also note, the solutions guide often fails to enlighten, as too often they leave out steps that are the focus of the topic in the section to which the exercises relate. Further, the solutions guide covers only the first 11 chapters, so you will need to consider the multi-variable solutions guide as well, and that brings the solutions guide cost to over half the price of the book.

All in all, this is not a bargain, and not even a very good value.