Customer Reviews

Thomas' Calculus, Alternate Edition (9th Edition)

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am an egineering major at Cornell University and had to use this book in two introductory level calculus courses. It is probably a mistake to say I used it in those courses. Indeed, it would be more accurate to say I was subjected to this book. The text converts what is already a difficult subject into an ordeal involving many many many hours of agnoizing frustration. Statements of theorems are overly complicated and take a great deal of effort to decode. The derivations of such theorems are not explained, nor do they make sense. There are very few examples in the text, and those examples that are given have virtually no explanations whatsoever. I found that reading the text often involved staring at a single page for a full half hour trying to figure what the blazes they are talking about. Indeed, after reading this book I usually found myself more confused than I was beforehand. Had I not gone out and purchased a number of books by different authors, I definitly would have failed both courses. This book does nothing but to stupefy the reader, not quite what you want if you are trying to understand triple integrals and Green's Theorem. Stay away from this book at all costs. It is an atrocity. If you are unfortunate enough to come across a copy of this book, do not hesitate to burn it with extreme prejudice.

I agree with the Cornell engineering student completely. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics, and have been tutoring my son who is a computer engineering major. Unfortunately he is stuck with this terrible excuse for a textbook. The explanations are just plain poor. The examples are generally very simple problems, then you get to the exercises that are three times as complicated and for which there are no examples to give you a clue how to work. And why is it that the even problems for which there are no answers are considerably harder than the odd problems? The book only provides a place for the instructor to assign problems. There is very little useful instruction. If you are unfortunate enough to be stuck with this book for a textbook, immediately go buy some other books to help you learn the subject. For first semester calculus, the Dummies books and the Idiots Guide are not too bad. But believe me, you will not learn Calculus from this book. The author may know the subject, but he doesn't have a clue how to communicate it to someone else.

It's not quite abysmal, but it's close. The explanations are unclear; the examples, as noted, are horribly simple; and when you need to refer back to something earlier, it's hard to find. Thankfully I have a copy of Calculus: Early Transcendentals Single and Multivariable by Anton, Bivens, & Davis that I can use to figure out what's going on. If you're stuck with this book, I suggest you find a better textbook to use as a reference and just get your homework problems out of this one.

It is simple, I placed the order for the book and it arrived on time and in the condition described. I have no complaints.