Customer Reviews

Calculus: Single Variable

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Little explanation or background is provided to orient the student; the book assumes the reader has been using trigonometry and algebra on a daily basis for the better part of adulthood. An example of this is the section on rates and related rates (4.6). There are two paragraphs given in the way of explanation:

"Derivatives represent rates of change. In this section, we see how to calculate rates in a variety of situations."

And...

"In Example 1, the radius of the snowball decreased at a constant rate. A more realistic scenario is for the radius to decrease at different rates at different times. Then, we may not be able to write a formula for V as a function of t. However, we may still be able to calculate dV/dt, as in the following example."

No mention of how the process of working related rates problems is similar to implicit differentiation. No step-by-step outline of a general way to go about working this category of problem. Just examples outside of any framework.

Better for a refresher in Calculus for graduate students than a freshman-level course. I used Stewart's "Calculus: Concepts and Contexts" to learn how to do the assigned work from this text.

Don't think the solutions manual will help--only a subset of the odd problems in the text are described and the explanations are often wanting.

This book is terrible. I used it for both calc 1 and 2. The University of Connecticut used this book for 3 semesters and than decided it was junk. Most of the math department hated the book and for the spring 07 semester they switched to the James Stewart book which is used for multivariable.

The problems are very hard and often the chapter does not show how to solve or give you strageties to solve them, the book does nothing well and is just an expensive paper back book with a horrible solution manual.

This book does not provide enough examples, and the few they do give are nothing like the work problems. Every teacher I've had has said if they were not required to use it, they would use a different book. And on top of that, it is ridiculously expensive! I have finally been forced to get another text book, and it is much better (and cheaper). Do not get this book if you have a choice.

While I do not expect calculus to be much other than dry, this text was especially difficult to read and follow. The chapters were very short but that is probably because the explanations were so brief. The problems were not broken down into easy to understand steps at all. Considering that this is a Calculus I book I, and other classmates, felt that there could have been a lot more explanation on the problems. I did, however, take the course online, so there was also no actual discussion involved in my learning. That said, I do not think that the book is effective for independent learning at all.

This is the book used for Math 115 and 116 (calculus I, II regular) here at the University of Michigan. And having used it, I would say it is only good as a spark notes version of the real thing. It is a book for engineers. No proofs and very little explanation of where the theorems came from. Thus, if you are an engineer and wants to use calculus mainly as a tool, then this might be the book for you. It certainly explains the concepts and its applications in the most succinct form.

However, if you plan to take upper level theoretical math classes later, DO NOT LEARN FROM THIS BOOK. You will only realize that you learned nothing later on. If you really want a thorough, rigorous training in calculus, buy the book by Apostol instead. That's the one used by the students at Caltech and MIT. Otherwise, you can always stick with Stewart.

I was very happy to find this item priced so reasonably. My search for a NEW book started at $150.00. I ended up paying less than 10 bucks for it. Very satisfied.

Book arrived in better condition than I had expected. Very fast and efficient service from bookseller. Will do business again...

As with many of the reviews for this text, I also was forced to use this textbook for Calculus I/II. It is horrendously difficult to learn the concepts with the format that this text employs, since it really does assume that your mathematical knowledge is a few years beyond where it should be at this introductory level. It does little to really explain the material or delve into some of the core concepts that need to be fully mastered and understood for comfort in later courses. Each section also provides little information to use to work the problem sets at the end. The authors have almost gone out of their way to ensure that all of the provided examples do not match any of the problems.

I would recommend this book more for a mathematics major than a science/engineering one. After several more years of math, physics, and engineering courses, this text is easy to understand. However, any first time Calculus student is going to struggle with it. Now as a tutor, I encounter excellent students every semester who become frustrated trying to learn this subject when the college requires this text. I am able to break it down for them, but only because of my greater experience. Learning Calculus should not have to be this difficult, tedious, and just flat out annoying.

If you are forced to use this text as a first time student, I would highly recommend purchasing a supplementary text to help clarify concepts and provide some sort of a link between problem sets and examples.

This calculus textbook provides challenging sample problems and clear proofs for calculus students. It highlights the main points well, surrounding each must-know point with an extremely helpful blue box (actually you could probably learn calculus by just reading the blue boxes). Exercises range from easy to very challenging and from random to practical. While most of the problems can be done by hand, a graphing calculator is necessary to get the most out of this book. For those taking AP Calculus, this book covers both AB and BC.

I've taught out of this book for several years. Students learn to understand the concepts through some very useful and interesting problems. Extremely well-written.