Calculus For Dummies
by Mark Ryan
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Book Reviews of Calculus For Dummies
Book Review: Superb as a supplemental book, but nearly worthless as a primary text.
Summary: 4 Stars
I taught my first calculus class over a quarter of a century ago. As always seems to be the case, the thought of having to take calculus had the members of the class nervous. To most it is a daunting task, yet the fundamentals of what is covered in differential and integral calculus are intuitive. Concepts such as continuity, limits, differentiability as the slope of the tangent line and integration as the limit of a sum are all ideas well within the grasp of nearly everyone.
The devil and fear is of course in the details, how to take these principles and apply them to problems. There have been many times when I have had a student tell me, " I understand the fundamental concept, that is easy to follow." However, when it comes time to do something like an epsilon-delta proof of continuity or understand the proof of the fundamental theorem of calculus, the student will say, "I don't know what to do."
In my opinion, that is what will happen to most of the people with no calculus background who read this book. They will understand the fundamental principles and hit a wall when they try to apply them. Knowledge of the fundamentals of precalculus is a necessity, without that, it is unlikely that even the intuitive concepts will make sense.
To paraphrase Euclid, "There is no easy road to calculus." It requires a great deal of thought, study and the acquisition of mathematical skill. Many people, myself included, believe that you really don't begin to understand it until a year after you complete the calculus courses.
Therefore, in my opinion, very few beginners will be able to acquire a great deal of calculus knowledge from this book. Even though I concede that the coverage is broad and the approach is at an understandable level. Learning calculus is a mind-broadening experience, yet it is no simple task. Memorization is pointless; the light bulbs must eventually go off in your mind. I don't see how reading any book without exercises can make that happen. I consider it superb as a supplemental book, but nearly worthless as a primary text.
Book Review: An excellent introduction to the subject and a good review
Summary: 5 Stars
I would define a calculus dummy as 1) A non-math major that want to get a good introduction to what calculus is about, 2) An individual that had long taken calculus that wants a quick refresher on the subject, perhaps to dig in deeper for more, 3) A student that is too lazy to read the real text book and thinks this book will be enough.
That said, I had taken calculus in college (10+ years ago), remembered some, but forgotten most of what I learned. After all, if you don't use it you lose it. As an design engineer turned software engineer I am about to make a life-changing career change back into design of RF electronics. I needed a quick refresher to get started. This was the book.
Mark does a very good job introducing the fundamental calculus topics including limits, differentiation, and integration. Among the tools covered are the derivatives, convergent and divergent series, functions, inverse functions, graphs, graph extrema, points of inflection, minima, maxima, mean-value-theorem, chain rule, power rules, product rule, implicit and explicit differentiation, first and second derivatives tests, integration, fundamental rule of calculus, trapezoidal rule, Simpson's rule, and much more.
I remembered enough of the subject while reading to make this book an easy read. I could, however, imagine that had I read this book prior to my calculus I course in college, how I would had a head-start advantage. There are several good "step back and a practical look at what these means" explanations that I sure wish my Bob Dylan look-alike graduate student calculus instructor could learn from.
I am now ready to move on to James Stewart's "Calculus" book.
Book Review: Excellent calculus companion for high school and college
Summary: 5 Stars
In the tradition of the "For Dummies" series, "Calculus For Dummies" offers its readers with the advantage of clearly understanding critical ideas in calculus. The book starts off with a refresher for algebra and such and then eliminates any fears of limits the reader might have. The fundamental idea of a limit (without the advanced delta-epsilon notation) allows the reader to thoroughly understand the backbone of calculus.
Differentiation is treated in detail with examples in power rule, chain rule, quotient rule, and applications (which the reader will have absolutely NO problem with after reading this book).
The concept of integration is explained so that the reader may see the fundamental principles of infinite summation of rectangles of miniature area. "Calculus For Dummies" has a strong presentation of integration techniques (especially integration by parts and the LIATE method pneumonic device) as well as trigonometric, volume and surface area, substitution, and indefinite integration.
Lastly, "Calc for Dummies" concludes with a discussion of infinite series. The book explains each of the 10 methods covered and also offers tips as to which method to use for a specific occasion.
All in all, a tremendously well-written book for those taking Calculus for the first time, those who need a companion for their current calc class, as well as those wishing for a refresher. "Calculus For Dummies" is very readable and allows the reader to understand the beautiful language of calculus without the rigors of proofs most calc textbooks have.
Book Review: Good book, but not for me.
Summary: 3 Stars
If you're trying to pass a calculus course, this book is a really good buy because it lays everything out very clearly and the explanations are great. The author gives a clear understanding of why we need to use calculus. For me, a person who's just curious about calculus, this book could have been a lot better by being more in-depth and less "funny". This book gives a decent overview of calculus, but in the end I stopped reading it for two reasons:
First, the book is about one-third silly jokes. Normally, I like a book with a little clever humor, but this book went way too far. I really do want to learn, but it's very distracting when a series of graphs is labeled, "More graphs" (haha) and a paragraph on limits ends with something like, "This sentence is here because my English teacher said every paragraph should have at least two sentences." (haha) The issue was not so much the bad jokes as the distraction. It's annoying when you're trying to grasp a difficult idea and all of a sudden the sentence doesn't make sense because it's "funny."
Second, this book is more of a review for getting through a calculus course (study techniques and all) rather than an overview of calculus for real applications. I would have liked more thorough understanding of how the rules worked rather than mostly just explaining the rules.
Book Review: AMAZING!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a college student who enrolled in calculus for the first time this semester. I had ordered this book prior to starting class but it had not arrived before our first meeting. I was really worried that I would not be able to understand the material after the first lecture. I read the text book and it still did not make much sense. About a week after class started, Calculus for Dummies arrives in the mail. WOW! Mark Ryan does such an amazing job of breaking difficult concepts into more than manageable pieces. And since math builds on itself, this book seems to follow so closely with my text book it is as if they were written for each other. I think one of the greatest advantages of this book is that in the very beginning Mark explains WHAT calculus is. What a novel concept! Realizing that calculus is primarily broken in to two sections, differentiation and integration, allowed me to get an idea of what lays ahead. And getting "math speak" explained in a plainer english format makes reading my textbook a breeze. I do recommend using this book as a supplement to your text book though...not as a substitute. Using it to aid the material that you are learning in class will increasing your understanding immensely. I'm proof of that. At this point, we've taken our first mid-term exam and I earned a 94%. Thanks Mark!