The Calculus Tutoring Book

by Carol Ash and Robert B. Ash

Book Overview

This book fills an educational void by adapting unique classroom-tested techniques that students find most congenial...that strip the shroud of mystery from an esoteric subject...that prepare students for applications of calculus in later courses.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0780310446
• ISBN13: 9780780310445
• Release Date: October 1993
• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press
• Length: 544 Pages
• Weight: 2.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.8" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

The textbook the professor should have used!

I took two semesters of calculus as an engineering major at a "prestigious" university and got a B and C respectively. The abstract lectures, which were held in a crowded auditorium, were incomprehensible (to me) and I found the textbook to be unreadable- we only used it because the authors were faculty members. Thankfully, I discovered this book in the local library and worked my way though it over summer vacation. In the process, I learned everything I was supposed to have learned in class. When I eventually took an advanced calculus course, I easily got an A because I'd learned so much from this book. This book is outstanding because it's intuitive with excellent "hand-drawn"-like figures. It avoids formal, mathematical rigour and has good problems with full solutions. However, it's NOT appropriate for non-science/engineering majors because it covers more advanced material than many of the other excellent "calculus for dummies"-like books, which have appeared since 1986. Unfortunately, due to a kind of academic "hazing" (elitism and snobbery), most professor prefer to assign difficult textbooks that actually make the material much HARDER to learn than it has to be. As college tuition is over $30K per year now, perhaps it's time to outsource higher education...

Genius!

This book is an excellent introduction into calculus. Perhaps I think it is so good because the authors present it in a visual style and I'm a visual thinker. Doubtlessly, it does not (cannot) cover a great deal of issues in calculus, but it is a wonderful introduction. I wonder why high school teachers don't use this instead of those horribly dry textbooks that they use. It seems to me that kids would sure learn and like calculus more if they used something like this.

The slope approaches zero in the limit - a MAXIMA (here)

This book is the all-time, no-question-about-it mother of all calculus texts. Period. If you have despaired of learning not just the tricks, but also the trade, of calculus, this book will amaze you; you know alot more than you thought, and are alot better at both differential and integral calculus than you may even have hoped. I learned calculus to MY OWN satisfaction using this book. It is immaculately clear in presentation, and not only holds interest but also reader confidence, (very much in an a la Feynman sort of way). I have neither seen nor can even imagine a better primer. Points: 1. The book omits all the rubbish about "proofs"; it obviously works, why bother? Only (sadistic?) mathematicians value such hieroglyphics. Strugglers DO NOT want to even SEE it; 2. Numerous well-worked examples abound throughout, and all exercises have answers in the back of the book. There are few things in this world more irritating than a (sadistic?) mathematician who puts problems without solutions in a calculus primer; 3. This book demystifies the terminolgy and techniques of what, at least in the rudimentary stages, is really not so difficult a topic. The presentation starts at ground zero, (slopes and limits in plain talk), and concludes with a very clear chapter on multiple integrals. You will acquire a lot of familiarity with calculus, and lose a lot of pent-up dread. You will also be able to derive, from first principles at a moment's notice, the formula for the volume of a sphere - much to the amazement of friends and family. In a former lifetime as a scientist, I couldn't help noticing how leery many of my peers would become when even the word "calculus" was mentioned. To these, calculus was a dreaded schoolmaster, ready to slap their palms with a pandybat. To me, it was an old and much appreciated friend - a lot more clever and eccentric than (even) me, but generally understandable, if you take the time to bear with him. If you need or want to understand basic calculus, the buck stops here. "Do yourself a favor."

The best college Freshman Calculus textbook ever.

As a professor of Physics and Engineering, I frequently get questions and complaints from students taking a traditional Calculus class using a traditional Calculus text about one point or another that escapes their understanding. Since Ash & Ash came out with The Calculus Tutoring Book, I simply have them look up the same topic in their text. Universally, they have been so impressed that they ask where they can buy a copy for themselves! Such a student response is the best endorsement any textbook can achieve. I regularly recommend the book to my Physics and Engineering students as a necessary addition to their personal library. I highly recommend the book to any serious student of the Calculus, particularly if Science or Engineering is their main interest.

For self study o review this is a great book!

Learning or reviewing math is difficult and requires motivation and a very good book. This is a very good book, possibly one of the few very well written math books. Lots of problems, some to that build confidence and others that will challenge. I used it for review and was glad to find such a good book.