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Calculus (Stewart's Calculus Series)
by: James Stewart |
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Binding: Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number: 515 EAN: 9780495011606 Edition: 6 ISBN: 0495011606 Label: Brooks Cole Manufacturer: Brooks Cole Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 1368 Publication Date: June 11, 2007 Publisher: Brooks Cole Studio: Brooks Cole
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| Customer Reviews | ||
  - Horrible for the first-time Calculus studentI am a college Calculus instructor, and I find this book terrible for many reasons. For students looking for a solid but much more inviting introduction to Calculus, I highly recommend Larson's book over Stewart's. Here is a point-by-point breakdown of the faults I find in Stewart's text: Clarity of Explanation and Content Level Stewart's explanations are often verbose, unclear, and written at a level too high for the average Calculus student. Several of my students have told me reading the book only confused them and did not clarify the concepts. An introductory text should offer simpler, clearer, and more concise explanations more appropriate to the typical Calculus student. Presentation In this day and age, students expect visually engaging presentations that will hold their attention. Stewart's presentations are drab and uninteresting. His book is everywhere packed with dense plain text and formulas, giving the impression that Calculus is hard, dull, and very complex, further intimidating students who are already scared of the subject. Students are much more likely to carefully read a text that is visually appealing and makes Calculus seem interesting and less intimidating. This will also help reduce their anxiety over what many already consider a very difficult course. Readability Another important aspect of presentation is layout and readability. Here Stewart's text is again dismal: His pages are overstuffed with text and graphics throughout the book, making it difficult to reference a theorem, particular type of example, etc. It is hard to see where one example or proof ends and another begins. The average student is not going to read the entire contents of a section in full detail, but will rather reference the topics s/he is having trouble with, in order to get the details on a theorem or to find an example problem to help with a homework exercise. This is very difficult to do in Stewart's text due to the crowded and confusing layout. Homework Exercises Stewart's text is again particularly poor in terms of his homework sets in that he tends to offer a few low-level problems and then suddenly jump into extraordinarily difficult problems with no warning or transition. Stewart also tends to couch exceedingly difficult problems between a series of relatively straightforward ones, again without warning, which is very frustrating for students who find themselves struggling over what they think is an easy problem. All in all, I strongly advise against this text, and would urge other Calculus instructors and mathematics departments to choose another Calculus book for their classes. Rating:  - The Best Calculus Book I have came acrossWhen I came out of High School abroad and attended College in the States, I had HUGE difficulties understanding the material for Calculus. The highest level of Math I achieved was pre-calculus. I usually relied on Schaum's Outline to get me out of some holes I fell in, during Calc 1 and 2, but I barely made it out alive. At the end of last year (2007), my counselor recommended that I switched to a Math MAJOR. And reminiscing on the dreaded TAYLOR SERIES, Improper Intergrals, I was skeptical I could understand the material for Calc 3. I bought my book beginning of this year to get a head start and snce James Stewart was the favorite at my school I also bought the Cacl 1 and Cacl 2 (same book) book, just in case I might need some freshing up.I was amaze. Very Surprise the way the material was presented. He gives you the concepts in a mathematical language that could make you scratch your head then explains it in plain, everyday english. The examples are perfect. He does an easy problem for you then a somewhat tricky one. I would advise anyone who buys this book to also purchase a solution manual. The solution manual although offers odd numbered solution will give you an edge against the even ones. I could without a doubt tell you if you use this book you probably dont need to attend class. Just go straight to the exam day. ( Now dont go and skip class). So you could blindly trust this purchase, it will make calculus look like LINEAR ALGEBRA OR ELEMETARY GEOMETRY. Rating: - GOOD DEALIt is the most cheapest that i can find online. Also it is cheaper than any other online bookstore. Love it. it is 50-60 cheaper than the campus bookstore.The book include the reference paper and can be teared easily. I love this book and the amazon.com. (^-^). Rating: - Calculus: ExplainedThis is your basic Calculus Course Book. The book is written very well, if you have any misunderstandings of how to work a problem this book help greatly. Rating:  - Meh...I taught Multivariable Calculus using this book as a TA. You will learn multivariable calculus, it's just as good as any other calculus text but with two major problems! 1) It does Taylor no justice! The multivariable version of the Taylor Approximation is absent. The author mentions linearizing a given function [of two variables] and thats it! C'mon! This is such an important aspect of math, physics, engineering, etc... why drop it? 2) The chapter on Gauss' Theorem, Stokes Theorem (Green's as well), and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus is poor, it provides little by way of intuitively understanding these integral theorems. As an added bonus (sarcasm), students, I find, have a harder time geometrically and physically understanding what the Curl and Divergence of vector fields represent! This is most unfortunate, especially for future physicists and engineers! There are books out there that would complement Stewart on this: "Div, Grad, Curl, And All That" by Schey is one of them; the book written by Marsden and Tromba is also a good place to go for both the integral theorems and the Taylor Polynomial. Other than this unfortunate turn of events, Stewart IS a good book. I do recommend Thomas' Calculus instead - the problem with that (as well as with Stewart) is that the price is so high. Get an older edition, you won't be missing much, you'll only gain insight and an appreciation for calculus as an undergrad. |
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