Forgotten Calculus [Paperback]

Barbara Lee Bleau Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0764119982 | ISBN-13: 978-0764119989 | Edition: 3

Updated and expanded to include the optional use of graphing calculators, this combination textbook and workbook is a good teach-yourself refresher course for men and women who took a calculus course in school, have since forgotten most of what they learned, and now need some practical calculus for business purposes or advanced education. The book is also very useful as a supplementary text for students who are taking calculus and finding it a struggle. Each progressive work unit offers clear instruction and worked-out examples. Special emphasis has been placed on business and economic applications. Topics covered include functions and their graphs, derivatives, optimization problems, exponential and logarithmic functions, integration, and partial derivatives.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This practical text-workbook will help you recapture the calculus that got away. Each work unit offers clear instruction and worked-out examples to help you brush up on the calculus you studied years ago in school but have since forgotten. Author Barbara Lee Bleau offers a teach-yourself refresher text, but the book can also serve as a valuable supplementary workbook and review text for students currently enrolled in a calculus course. Because the material is presented clearly, taking concepts one at a time, this book can also be used as a self-teacher by readers who have never studied calculus.

New in This Edition: Use of Graphing Calculators Explained

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; 3 edition (December 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764119982
• ISBN-13: 978-0764119989
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best intro or review text on Calculus I've found, May 26, 2001

By 

Michael McBroom (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Forgotten Calculus: A Refresher Course with Applications to Economics and Business (Paperback)

When I picked up this book, I had completed one quarter of calculus at the university level (about 15 years prior), and had accumulated a bookshelf full of calculus texts and self-help books over the subsequent years, with the best of intentions of delving deeper into the subject. It never happened, though. All of the books I had obtained on the subject were either obtuse, mind-numbingly dull, or both. Then I discovered Dr. Bleau's Forgotten Calculus. At first, I was somewhat daunted by the title, because for me there was a lot of "not-taken" calculus in her book, but then I noted the blurb on the cover, the last clause of the last sentence, which read "...and can be used by adults who have never studied calculus."

This is simply the best self-help book I have ever come across. It took me about two months to complete, working through the material in my spare time. The subject matter was stimulating and clearly explained, favoring the practical over the theoretical. Best of all, it left me wanting for more -- an uncommon feat for a math book, especially one about calculus.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Choice for the Business Oriented Reader, March 3, 2006

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Forgotten Calculus (Paperback)

This book provides a gentle review of differential and integral calculus. About 2/3rds of the material is devoted to differential calculus. Numerous fully worked examples, as well as problems with full solutions, are provided in each Unit. Each of the 28 Units ends with a relatively long list of exercises, usually hovering around 20 or so. Fully worked answers, not just solutions, for all exercises are provided at the end of the book.

Some of the features which make the book appealing as a basic introduction may limit its usefulness for those who need to use calculus for more advanced work or "real world" problems in the immediate future. Examples are overly simplified compared to even modestly complex applications in the undergraduate curriculum or "real world". As an example, the Unit on Linear Applications presents a demand function for a homemade cake business, where the business can sell no more than 10 cakes. This is excellent for a novice calculus learner, but it might disappoint the economics's major who might hope for a few more realistic examples. The business nature of problems used in the text and exercises will limit the books value for engineering and science students.

The book, as one might expect of any mathematics book, is not free from errors, although the number is smaller than one would expect for a book with this many worked problems. Also, most of the errors are fairly obvious and should not be a problem, even for beginners. As an example of the errors one might encounter, here are some from Unit 6. On page 79 a "+" is inadvertently changed to a "-"; example 5 gives the wrong vertex for a quadratic function, and the graph of 6.1 gives incorrect values for f(-1) and f(-5). Occasionally a problem solution is left off as in Exercise 5d in Unit 11, or a problem appears, Exercise 20 in Unit 15, that is unconnected to the material in the Unit.

The book is an "old style" calculus text in that it emphasizes repetitive pencil and paper problem solutions. The text and Exercises often provide a small amount of material on and for the TI-83 graphing calculator. However, the emphasis is clearly on solutions to simplified problems, easily solved by hand. The exercises provide for extensive repetition. For the reader having problems, this is extremely helpful. Others, however, may select to solve only a few of the end of chapter exercises. Some may even decide to solve only the examples and problems in the text and skip the exercises completely, as the text presents all the necessary material clearly. However, the book provides plenty of exercises if needed.

In summary, this book is an excellent basic introduction or review of calculus for the business or economics major. Its a friendly introduction, with concepts clearly explained with relatively few errors.

I kept track of the time to read a number of chapters and solve all chapter exercises. Based on the results, it should be possible to complete the book at a reasonably comfortable pace within three weeks, or within two weeks with a more concentrated effort.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forgotten Calculus-A very understandable and helpful review, May 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Forgotten Calculus: A Refresher Course with Applications to Economics and Business (Paperback)

This is one of the better practical texts available for a cursory review of calculus. My congratulations to Barron's and Dr. Lee Bleau. I usually do not take the time to comment on books although I like to get some feedback before buying a book. I felt so good about this text that I had to recommend it for anyone who wants to review their precalculus and calculus. It has a great synopsis of functions, as is usually covered under precalculus courses. It then moves on to derivatives, differential and integral calculus. Other "quick learning"/review books have not been as "smooth" as this one. The topics are covered clearly and in good order. There are a lot of example problems, with solutions, that help reinforce the learning process. I have actually found that I enjoy reading this book. The author does a great job in covering the material.