Calculus Deconstructed

Reviews / Votes

The introduction of a calculus sequence to the high schools has necessitated the development of a course in college math programs to deal with the students that have taken the high school sequence when they arrive on campus. While some of the students coming out of the high school programs are mathematically very capable, many are weak and are not ready to proceed to the first course taken after a year of calculus. This book was developed as a response to these conditions, it can be considered as a ""calculus with basic analysis"" bridge course. There is the assumption that the student has at least been exposed to what is often called ""plug and chug"" calculus, where the students are told the formulas and then given problems where they simply execute the algorithms. The approach is a rigorous presentation of single variable calculus with formal definitions and rigorous proofs. Three levels of exercises/problems are given at the ends of the sections: they are in the categories of practice problems, theory problems and challenge problems. These categories are listed in increasing degree of difficulty. One other very positive characteristic is that there is no mention of using technology such as graphing calculators or symbolic algebra packages. The book is also effectively dense in the sense that all the material is covered in roughly 400 pages, less than half the size of most first year calculus texts. Change always produces the need for reaction and that is true in education as well. In this case the author has done an excellent job in creating a text for a course in advanced calculus that could serve as a bridge course for incoming students that have had calculus in high school or those that took calculus years earlier. Such people usually remember the formulas but have lost the rigor."" - Charles Ashbacher, Journal of Recreational Mathematics