Thomas' Calculus, 11th Edition [Hardcover]

George B. Thomas (Author), Maurice D. Weir (Author), Joel Hass (Author), Frank R. Giordano (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321185587 | ISBN-13: 978-0321185587 | Publication Date: October 15, 2004 | Edition: 11th

The new edition of Thomas is a return to what Thomas has always been: the book with the best exercises. For the 11th edition, the authors have added exercises cut in the 10th edition, as well as, going back to the classic 5th and 6th editions for additional exercises and examples. The book's theme is that Calculus is about thinking; one cannot memorize it all. The exercises develop this theme as a pivot point between the lecture in class, and the understanding that comes with applying the ideas of Calculus. In addition, the table of contents has been refined to match the standard syllabus. Many of the examples have been trimmed of distractions and rewritten with a clear focus on the main ideas. The authors have also excised extraneous information in general and have made the technology much more transparent. The ambition of Thomas 11e is to teach the ideas of Calculus so that students will be able to apply them in new and novel ways, first in the exercises but ultimately in their careers. Every effort has been made to insure that all content in the new edition reinforces thinking and encourages deep understanding of the material.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1380 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 11th edition (October 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321185587
• ISBN-13: 978-0321185587
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Stewart's book... In fact, the best!, March 17, 2004

By 

"idreamofjeani" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Thomas' Calculus, Updated (10th Edition) (Paperback)

I've used both Stewart's Calculus and Thomas'. Interestingly, Thomas has been writing calculus books for a LONG time and i've picked up several editions in the used book stores, because from the first time i bought a Thomas calc book back in Jr. High for my own self interest, i was a fan of his style.

His style is that of the old-school American text book authors who wrote in a clear, concise manner of English, using tangible and visual examples. Those old writers still thought of much of the material as novel, and were appealing to a more agrarian society of students.. especially the young and booming field of engineers. This is lacking in today's texts. The only drawback is that some old texts are much too impersonal and use the passive voice for everything, which can make them very difficult to read at times.

Thomas' recent editions (at least - i can not recall for the 60's era editions) are not only formally clear, but easy to understand and read. Here are the ways in which Thomas' book beats Stewart's book:
1) His explanations are accompanied by better graphics. Thomas uses more graphics to show each example and derivation. He uses MULTIPLE frames of graphics for one example, instead of just a single graphic. This makes following his train of thought much easier.. it's almost like watching a video.
2) His writing style is more complete. He leaves out fewer ideas than Stewart. Sometimes Stewart, like most authors, forgets to mention what exactly he is thinking and the reader is left trying to figure out his train of thought.
3) Thomas guides the reader through more (graphical) derivation of concepts. Sometimes, you will find derivations which Stewart relegates to problems for the reader (don't you hate that!?), are actually shown visually by Thomas!

Thomas' book is in fact probably the best calculus textbook around. I've looked at many many of them, and fraknly, none of them are this complete and well developed... The funny thing is, Thomas' book was one of the best decades ago. It has only gotten more exhaustive and more mature!

You should have this book in your reference library at least. You are more likely to find illustrative discussion on any particular introductory calculus subject in this book than you are in other books.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A better book for Calculus, March 5, 2005

By 

Dylan Shell "dylanshell" (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thomas' Calculus, Updated (10th Edition) (Paperback)

I've been rather impressed with this book. Rather than just focusing on how to go about the processes of the calculus (i.e., how to differentiate, to integrate, etc...) this book takes good time to explain why and how various things work the way they do.

Every elementary Calculus book must sweep some things under the rug; the alternative is to cover very few results and sacrifice breadth. This book strikes a good balance between breadth and depth.

In particular I found the sections on multivariate calculus illuminatory.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Graphics = Easy Teaching, December 10, 2007

By 

Brian J. Huffman (Minneapolis/St. Paul) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thomas' Calculus, 11th Edition (Hardcover)

I took calculus back in college in the early 1970s and I was very pleased to see how much color graphics have done to make this subject understandable. I was using this book to tutor my daughter and I found it much easier than I thought it would be to teach her about the Taylor Series (for example) because of the clever use of color on the graph (showing how fit improved as more terms were added to the series). The book was very readable and seemed to be rigorous (I'm not a mathematician, but I couldn't see that anything was missing).

Be careful if you want a book on second order differential equations. There are two problems: One small problem is that this book sometimes has a chapter on second order differential equations and sometimes it doesn't. I'm not talking about two editions either...the 11th edition may or may not have that material (I think it is chapter 17). I suppose they had two printings so beware of the used copies if you want that material. Also, the table on second order differential equations has an error in it (I think it said k when it should have said ki...).