Best Calculus Books | Find Your Favorite Today

[Farmtalk]

Hi everyone! I'm wanting to polish my calculus skills a bit so that I can help people here on the site more . I own a couple of books on calculus as it is, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what their favorite books on the subject were so that I could have a search of it online :)

Thanks everyone!

 

[chisigma]

Hi everyone! I'm wanting to polish my calculus skills a bit so that I can help people here on the site more . I own a couple of books on calculus as it is, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what their favorite books on the subject were so that I could have a search of it online :)

Thanks everyone!

View attachment 2832Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$

 

[Farmtalk]

View attachment 2832Kind regards

$\chi$ $\sigma$

In English?

 

[MarkFL]

In English?

As my old physics professor used to say, with feigned disbelief:

"You weren't required to learn Latin in high school?!?"

:D

 

[Farmtalk]

The school systems around here don't offer Latin, it's all about being able to say "yo hablo Español" and know what it means ;)

 

[Deveno]

The last time I tried that, I apparently greeted my Latin American friend with the equivalent of:

"I/we are poblano peppers".

***********

The three calculus books I see most recommended are:

Calculus, M. Spivak

Calculus, J. Stewart (7th ed.)

Calculus, Vol. I, T. Apostol

There is also a text freely available online, by Gilbert Strang (you may have to go to his web-site, or the MIT open courseware site, to find it).

I cannot say which one is "best", as they have different strengths and weaknesses, which may fit better with different people. This is what I can say:

Stewart seems to be very popular as a text-book, particularly in Calculus AP courses. Spivak is very readable, but the problems are at times quite hard. Apostol's book is a bit unorthodox in the order of presentation, and geared towards the eventual professional mathematician (i.e., math majors). I've only glanced at Strang's book...it's rather large, with a lot of examples, and seems to me geared to someone who might either go on to study higher math, OR continue in the physical sciences.

There are, however, a LOT of calculus books out there (I believe there's even a "Calculus For Dummies" book).