Salas and Hille's Calculus: Several Variables

by Einar Hille, Garret J. Etgen, Saturnino L. Salas

Book Overview

Maintaining its elegant presentation and appropriate level of vigor, this carefully revised classic infuses a new emphasis on problem-solving skills and real-world applications. Using a generic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471123668
• ISBN13: 9780471123668
• Release Date: April 1995
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 736 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 20.8" x 25.3"

Customer Reviews

If All Mathematics Texts Could Be This Good

I have two copies, because the first became worn out. Every subject and treatment is well organized and thoughtful. Although I have many mathematics books that offer a more analytic treatment of calculus ideas, for its purpose this is easily the best mathematics book I own. I saw that there is now a looseleaf notebook version available for student, yet I would highly recommend the hardback, as it can be kept for reference into the future. If you only own one calculus book, this should be it.

The Best! there is

I was fortunate to have the co-author of this book as a professor at the University of Houston. The book is a wonderful combination of: 1) clear and concise presentation of theory; 2) examples and applications relevant to science, mathematics and business; 3) analysis, in fact most results are derived and there are problems which enable a motivated student to begin building his/her derivation and mathematical reasoning skills; 4) diagrams. The book is also comprehensive. It "constructs" calculus from the theory of limits, provides the foundation of calculus in the form of various theorems, including but not limited to the Mean Value Thoerem, the Intermediate Value Theorem, Rolle's theorem, L'Hospital's theorem, Riemann Integral, Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. Also provided are the resulting powerful derivative, integration and function analysis tools. The book includes calulus of one variable as well as many variables in the Vector Calculus section of the book. Finally, it ends with an introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations. It takes three semesters: Calculus I, II and III to get through this book at the University of Houston. So, although the price seems high, there is a tremendous amount here. I am now a graduate student in physics taking an Analysis course with the great author of this book (G. Etgen) this summer. This is not a course I need, so this gives you an idea of how stimulating Dr. Etgen's presentation of calculus is. You must master calculus before you can be competent in applied physics (or other science field), advanced finance, ... If you study each page of this book and work many of the problems in each section, you will be well on your way to being accomplished in a career in applied or theoretical mathematics. Also, the student solutions manual to the book is excellent and recommended.

Great book for learning

This is a superb textbook and it's easy to see why the book is in its ninth edition. What I really enjoyed (yes, I know this may sound a little incongruous in relation to calculus) was the step-by-step build-up of knowledge with good, clear examples. Also, for the problems at the end of each section, all the odd problems have solutions, so one can get some practice (something that is unfortunately rare for many textbooks). Before going through this book, I had minimal exposure to calculus and what I had seen wasn't very favorable. This book was a key reason why I now really enjoy the subject and feel very comfortable in this area.

Not for the mediocre

This book is a stunning rebuke to all attempts to dumb down the math curriculum in high schools and colleges. This book, in my opinion, expects the student to have mastered precalculus at the level set forth in, say, David Cohen's Precalculus with unit-circle trigonometry (ISBN 0-534-35275-8). It introduces mathematical rigor in the Calculus 101 semester (of a three semester calculus program) and thereby begins preparing the math major for the hard analysis courses that comes later on. There are no cute stories featuring 'How I Use Math In The Workplace' to inspire you - your self esteem will be hard won as you master the concepts as presented here (especially the problems). The book's greatest strength is that it is basic and traditional in its approach to calculus - no problem or example requires obscure special tricks from mathematical journals or Isaac Newton level ingenuity. This book is a must get!

Great Book

(This review refers to the eighth edition)This is an excellent textbook for an ordinary 3 semester calculus sequence. Important theorems are not used without proof, the illustrations are simple and tasteful (I hate when math textbooks contain color photographs), and the content is well-written. There's a good balance between theory and applications. This textbook does tend to be more challenging than many undergraduate texts, and may not be appropriate for high school or junior college courses.The least upper bound material would be better placed earlier, before studying integrals. The authors might have expanded the theory involving implicit differentiation and differentials. This is an introductory text, however, and the authors generally make good choices when it comes to including theory. Every university should use this book as the text for their standard calculus sequences.