Calculus Made Easy

After 3 years of advanced mathematics in college and an engineering degree, everything I knew about calculus was rote: I could come up with the answers, but not because I understood the underlying principles or basis, but because I could memorize procedures. Years out of school, I bought this book and read it, and the light bulb turned on. I don't know whether I was just a bad student before, had bad teachers, or simply was presented the material in a way that was incompatible with the way I learn. In any case, this book did it for me, and perhaps it will do the same for others. I've since gone back through my old college math books, and they're as difficult to understand as they were the first time. If you know someone struggling with calculus, do them a favor and get them this book.

The mathematicians who write textbooks are invariably sadistic cretins with either no aptitude for effective communication or contempt for it. The dirty little secret of the textbook world is that students don't pick textbooks, so meeting a student's needs isn't a publisher's goal. A textbook author's primary goal is to solicit the approval and support of other academics. This is not a system that often rewards clarity or readable prose. After reading this book, I realized that calculus is really very simple and is based on a relatively small set of simple rules. It's incredible beauty and power comes from it's simplicity. Mathematicians have a habit of making very simple concepts sound more complicated than they are. A Definite Integral for instance, which is governed by something audaciously called The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, is subtraction - fricking subtraction. Anyone who couldn't "derive it" when needed should probably switch to a career that involves flame broiling and extra cheese. The obviousness of the Fundamental Theorem doesn't make it any less significant, but it does prove that the "hardness" of math is a function of how pretentious the expositor is. Thompson's relatively down to Earth and casual style helped me get excited about math again. If you're like me, you'll find yourself wondering what all the fuss was about after working through this book. It's a great book and an absolute must for anyone taking their first stab at calculus, especially if your professor is from Bangledesh and bribed someone to pass the TOEFL.

Calculus Made Easy is truly a well-written book. It divides into over 20 chapters thorough examples and applications of calculus as well as the development of calculus itself, and everything is surprisingly contained in fewer than 300 pages! Authors of many modern-day calculus textbooks twice its size try to explain the same fundamental concepts but cannot achieve Thompson's levels of triumph.Topics in this work include: limits, maxima, minima, successive differentiation, compound interest, law of organic growth, and more. Though the subjects are frequently isolated for each chapter, Thompson has nonetheless provided insights to the degree that one could synthesize or put together these various concepts to formulate their own interesting problems and procedures.With the great Martin Gardner to revise this classic and to provide further mathematical expositions, Calculus Made Easy is highly recommended for the lover of mathematics as well as the teacher who wants to present mathematics from a better thematic standpoint.

I have been teaching Calculus for the last two years, and I just stumbled across this book a few weeks ago. What I found was a book that explains the philosophy of the subject in a very simple manner, making it easy to understand even for people who are not proficient in math.The concepts in Calculus are really simple things; as Gardner puts it, "the universe seems to favor simplicity in its fundamental laws". But there's always the teacher's pride, which leads him to make it all seem difficult, expecting the student to be amazed at how much the teacher knows. Alas the true result is that the student is usually left confused, loses interest in the subject, perhaps gives up on a career that he/she otherwise would have succeeded in, etc. I know about this, because I am guilty of it myself.I recommend this book to people who:1. Are just learning calculus. The book uses easy-to-understand language, simple examples, etc. Read about the binomial theorem before reading this book, though.2. People who want to grasp the essence of calculus, not necessarily for a college course. Easy, entertaining reading; as stated earlier, the philosophy of the subject is presented in a comprehensible manner.3. Calculus teachers. Definitely a must! This book is a good example of how calculus should be taught. Though you may not draw totally upon it, having read through Thompson's book can give you a good idea on how to organize your course and how to explain fundamental concepts