Single Variable Calculus (Stewart's Calculus Series) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "In A Preview of Calculus (Section 5 in Review and Preview) we saw how the idea of a limit underlies the various branches of calculus..." (more)
Key Phrases: appropriate viewing rectangle, graphing device, graph several members, Chain Rule, Mean Value Theorem, Hospital's Rule (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Success in your calculus course starts here! James Stewart’s CALCULUS texts are world-wide best-sellers for a reason: they are clear, accurate, and filled with relevant, real-world examples. With CALCULUS, Sixth Edition, Stewart conveys not only the utility of calculus to help you develop technical competence, but also gives you an appreciation for the intrinsic beauty of the subject. His patient examples and built-in learning aids will help you build your mathematical confidence and achieve your goals in the course!

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: 936 pages
• Publisher: Brooks Cole; 6 edition (March 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0495011614
• ISBN-13: 978-0495011613
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #277,969 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For what its worth, this is a good Calculus textbook, December 22, 2004

By	Matthew Bratkowski "mattster" (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Single Variable Calculus (with Tools for Enriching Calculus, Video Skillbuilder CD-ROM, iLrn™ Homework, and Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING) (Hardcover)

This book covers the first twelve chapters of the full edition of Calculus by Stewart. I would actually recommend buying that book instead of this one if you are planning on taking up to Calc. 3 because they are similar in price but the full version includes Calc 1, 2, and 3 material.

Anyway, I used this text for both Calculus 1 and 2 in college. The first six chapters cover the course material for Calculus 1: Introductory Analytical Geometry, Limits, Derivatives, Applications of Derivatives, Integrals, and Applications of Intergrals. Chapters 7-12 covers course material normal for Calculus 2: Inverse functions/Derivatives and integrals of exponential and logarithmic functions, Techniques of Integrations, Applications of Integration to Physics/Engineering, Differiential Equations (which we didn't cover), Parametric Equations/Polar Coordinates, and Series. For some reason chapter seven includes different verisons of certain sections but they are basically the same anyway.

Unlike other reviewers, I think that this book was very helpful. It is possible to learn the material if you put a lot of effort into it, which you need to do if you really want to learn Calculus.

I can see why reviewers would find this book difficult to use though. Truthfully, I found the Calc 1 material much more difficult than the Calc 2 material, probably because more of the calc 1 material is based on theory. The section about graphing fuctions using derivatives is especially difficult. It is extremely difficult to take the derivatives of some of the functions the book gives you, let alone find the critical points, etc. Also, some of the maximinization problems are virtually impossible to solve and a number of the related rate problems are very tricky. Finally, I think that I can truthfully say that I rarely solved integrals correctly by the long way (using summations).

Some people think that Calc 2 is the hardest math subject in the world, but I found the calc 2 material much easier than the calc 1 material. The calc 2 chapters deal more with just solving problems particularly limits, integrals, and series, and the "proofs" for equations are just given on the side or in the appendex. You should already know the basics, so there is nothing really tricky here (except maybe integration by partial fractions) and if you put the effort into working problems, you will probably do ok. Calc 2 is all about 1) Learning how to solve problems by recognizing trends and 2) Commiting some formulas and equalities to memory in order to solve problems and learn about applications of math. As far as I can see, Stewart's problems are as good as any to learn Calc 2.

If you plan on studying Calculus in college, I would suggest first buying the book "Calculus the Easy Way" to look over first. It is pretty good; it covers all Calc 1 material and a good chunk of Calc 2 material. I would also suggest buying the solutions manuel to Stewart's text because it is helpful to see how the problems are worked out. My advice is to just put a lot of time into Calculus (no matter what book you use) and you should do ok. Its just math.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stewart provides a firm ground for calc beginners, April 21, 2002

By	Abigail Nussey (Boston University) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Single Variable Calculus (Hardcover)

In the world of introductory physics, there is clearly a division: those who hate Stewart, and those who love Stewart. I, frankly, am neither: but I realize that Stewart's many strong points outweigh the weak points.

Beginners often will find pure theory and proofs alien to their minds, as they are just trying to grasp how to apply what they are learning --- like how they may go about obtaining derivatives and plotting periodic functions. Stewart handles this well: while providing a good theoretical background (he states theorems and proves most of them quite clearly and succintly) he does not inundate the wide-eyed innocent with epsilons and other frightening Greek characters. Stewart stresses some very important and difficult concepts to grasp --- like the many methods on integration involving 'guessing' substitution methods and others ways of integrating which involve understanding what the answer might be in advance by scanning the integral first, etc. Stewart also introduces some differential equations and has a wonderfully long section on series which stress their most useful applications -- the convergence and divergence of series and the Taylor and Maclaurin series representations of functions.

Stewart's text is clear and easy for the student to work through either in a class setting or independently. I should know -- I taught myself Calc II (integration to series) using this book, and now I am doing quite well in advanced calc (integral transforms, partial differential equations, etc). Stewart sets the stage for success.

This book can be easily used by students at any age who have had up to the level of trigonometry.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars DON'T BUY!, November 16, 1999

By	Gregg Erickson (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Single Variable Calculus (Hardcover)

Specifically, This book...

Contains many errors, which have been discovered by students.

Offers far too few examples for the student to learn from.

Generally, students who use this book need to consult other books to learn the material.