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Title: Calculus (with CD-ROM) by James Stewart ISBN: 0-534-39339-X Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Pub. Date: 20 December, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $135.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.9 (103 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Standard Textbook-Good for the Fundamentals, but not Clairty
Comment: James Stewart's book is one of the several standard textbooks in single and multivariable calculus circulating in the marketplace. If you wish to learn the calculus rigourously, then this is the book to work through. However, it is not for the faint-hearted so far as mathematics is concerned; it is very dense and rigorous in many areas, filled with abstract definitions based on set theory (something nonmathematicians no doubt will have a hard time with). It also has many difficult and seemingly unsolvable problems, especially with the tedious integration drills with trig functions; once you understand you can easily find most of these exotic integrals using CAS or tables, you wonder what all the effort was for. The multivariable calculus and differential equations sections are thorough, and Stewart's treatment of vectors and vector calculus is surprisingly fresh and clear of jargon.
On the positive side, the book is filled with many fascinating problems and projects related to the 'real' world, ranging from psychology to physics and astronomy. Interesting computational projects include proving Kepler's laws from Newton's gravity, the flight of a baseball, the calculus of rainbows, how to split a pizza the most effecient way, designing a dumpster with the most area and so on. Anyone with a heart for applied mathematics will not be dissapointed, nor those who demand rigor, given each theorem is carefully defined, and many rigorously proved.
In summary, it is a standard, solid textbook that will provide a solid foundation for further studies in maths and the sciences. Its main drawback is its difficulty and rather formidable complexity and rigor (I would recommend starting calculus using an easier, more intuitive text like Kline or the Schaum's outlines series on calculus) which make it slow and heavy going for the nonmathematician. It is also not the best place to quickly learn the 'basics' of calculus for say, physics or engineering; for that I'd recommend 'Mathematical Techniques, 2nd Ed' by Jordan and Smith.
Rating: 3
Summary: Why Such Varied Reviews?
Comment: There is a reason why the reviews of Stewart's Calculus textbook vary so widely. It's because Stewart is challenging. Some instructors favor Stewart because they are steeped enough in the Math to appreciate Stewart's applications and explanations of Calculus's uses in so many fields of study. But students who struggle with Math may have a difficult time with Stewart's rigor, and his algebraic/conceptual jumps. Let's review some specific qualities of this book:
o Text: The text is pretty clearly written, with no errors I know of, but makes some conceptual leaps periodically.
o Layout: The layout is excellent. It makes great use of consistent color coding and typographical conventions to identify classes of concepts. (I.e., It's always easy to spot and distinguish Examples, Proofs, Rules, and New Sections.)
However, there are some algebraic manipulations that are sometimes combined into one line that should probably be expanded out and explained better. Even though students are expected to understand the algebra at this point, it's often crucial to explain _why_ certain algebraic manipulations are being done. Usually there is a certain form of an expression or equation that is useful or desirable for a specific reason. Such reasons need to be explicated side-by-side with the steps to reach the desired form, instead of just skipping to the desired form (as sometimes is done).
o Terminology: In some places Stewart talks about "constants" when what he really means are "scalars." There is a distinction between these two concepts that is important in other fields of math that could be confused. He also uses different letters to identify "any real number" or "a particular real number" than is standard in many other texts. This also could lead to confusion.
o Graphics: The integration (pun intended :) of graphs and diagrams to supplement functions, step-by-step processes, and proof descriptions in this text is frequent, helpful, and very well done.
o Exercises: The exercises for each section start off easy and in close step with the concepts and example problems that have been demonstrated in the preceding section. However, Stewart's problems ramp up in difficulty quickly. Exercises in the the middle or near the end of a set often have no direct prototypes in the preceding text for students to lean on. Some instructors might consider this an asset, but when assigned carelessly can be a frustration to students. One improvement from Fourth Edition to Fifth Edition was the "red flagging" of many exercises of especial difficulty.
o Proofs: Simple theorems and rules are proved in the text as they are introduced. More complicated proofs are provided in appendices in the back. The text is pretty thorough about proofs.
o Worst section: I think the hardest section for students to understand (and unfortunately one of the most important in Calculus) is the section titled "The Precise Definition of a Limit". Stewart has a habit in this section, when manipulating an absolute value of epsilon expression, to abbreviate it all on one line without explaining _why_ he is performing the operations that he is. He should expand these out to multiple algrebraic lines, possibly with some text explaining that he is trying to get the epsilon expression to match the delta expression. It is impossible to be too verbose, explicit, and careful with this section. And certainly more of each of these could be used in Stewart's rendition.
Other reviewers mentioned the sections on the Chain Rule, Integration by Substitution, and Integration by Parts -- all of which could be improved. Substitution and Parts could be improved by drawing the little grids of what u and du represent (that many instructors write underneath these kind of exercises before substituting).
To summarize, if you're good at math this is probably a good text for you. If you (or your students) have weaknesses, stick with something simpler -- Larson's Calculus text is excellent and good to compare against this one.
Rating: 5
Summary: excellent!
Comment: This is the best calculus textbook i've ever read.It helps me to
gain many useful concepts by text and plot.
This book is wrote in a logical way.
By reading the book,I like calculs more.
Spending time reading this book will save your time understanding what is calculus.
Anyway, if you are now confused about which calculs book should be put on your bookshelf,Stewart's calculs is the only choice.
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Title: Student Solutions Manual for Stewart's Single Variable Calculus by Daniel Anderson, Jeffery A. Cole, Daniel Drucker ISBN: 0534359531 Publisher: Brooks Cole Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Study Guide for Stewart's Single Variable Calculus by Richard St. Andre, Richard A. Stewart ISBN: 0534364314 Publisher: Thomson Learning Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $33.95 |
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Title: Multivariable Calculus: Stewart's Student Manual by Dan Clegg, Barbara Frank ISBN: 0534359574 Publisher: Brooks Cole Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $33.95 |
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Title: Student Solutions Manual to Accompany Fundamentals of Physics 6th Edition, Includes Extended Chapters by David Halliday, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker ISBN: 0471360341 Publisher: Wiley Text Books Pub. Date: 27 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $41.95 |
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Title: Calculus: Early Transcendentals (with CD-ROM) by James Stewart ISBN: 0534393217 Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing Pub. Date: 20 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $135.95 |
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