# Calculus with Analytic Geometry 1 Book?

I am a sophomore at Penn State and I am taking Calculus for the second time, I didn't fail the first time, but I didn't want to take the chance I might get a D so I dropped it. Anyhow I am looking a great Math book to learn from while I am learning it again in class. We are using Calculus: Early Transcendentals (Stewart's Calculus Series) 7th and 6th edition, but I feel like the book doesn't do a good job explaining things. The how and why of the problems isn't there. So is there a great math book ( not a textbook or anything) that I could use on the side that teaches Calculus with great explanations?

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Perhaps "Analysis in One Variable" by Estep. It does a great job explaining the underlying principles. But it doesn't cover as much as Stewarts book.

I really think your best bet would be to look at other freshman calc books and see if they clear things up for you --- Anton, Larson, and Thomas are three very popular examples, and you might find that one or more of them explains things in a way that you find more understandable.

But if you absolutely don't want a textbook, then all you can do is try books like "Calculus for Dummies," or "Calculus Demystified," or stuff like that. I've never read them, so I don't know how good they are.

With all due respect to other posters, including those who always recommend Spivak or Apostol, I strongly doubt that analysis-based texts are what you want, if you were flirting with a D your first time around.

You might also consider that the problem may not be with calculus, but with its prereqs. If you think you may be a little shaky in algebra or trig or graphing functions, you might want to get a PREcalculus text and work through it carefully.

Unfortunately, the precalc text I usually recommend is also by Stewart. You might try Swokowski's, though.

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jcw99
Gold Member
Read the Amazon reviews of Calculus by Gilbert Strang. If you like the book reviews, you can google his website - Wellesley-Cambridge Press and order the text and the solutions manual and the study guide if you're still interested. If he still has the first edition on hand you'll probably get a real good deal on it.

Which parts did you find the most confusing? Do you have a harder time applying the techniques or understanding the concepts? What is your major?

mathwonk
I recommend the paperback Calculus by my friend and colleague, Elliot Gootman. It was written exactly for people like you, who are taking calculus and struggling with it. It costs $10 new on Amazon where it has 22 reviews, 19 of them 5 stars, ( two 4 stars and one 3 stars). (And the 3 star review is for an error in a link provided by Amazon, not for Gootman's book.) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812098196/?tag=pfamazon01-20&tag=pfamazon01-20 Last edited by a moderator: Perhaps "Analysis in One Variable" by Estep. It does a great job explaining the underlying principles. But it doesn't cover as much as Stewarts book. This book looks great... I like the way he words things. thank-you Actually you can download a slightly older but perfectly good edition of Strang's book, study guide, and solutions manual for free from the OCW site: http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/ and I somehow forgot to mention the video lectures available at sites like OCW and Khan Academy. I just downloaded it, it looks ok..Any and all help will awesome. O and Khan academy is awesome, I found out about it to late last semester. Thanks for the help. Which parts did you find the most confusing? Do you have a harder time applying the techniques or understanding the concepts? What is your major? Currently I am an Aerospace Engineer, but that might change to a different engineering or some form of science like physics which I love. Calculus wasn't hard, if I a year to learn it like in high school well I would of had no problem. It was more the speed at which we were learning and the fact that I wrote it off, didn't try my hardest because before that I had never seen calculus. It was a mistake. The thing I had trouble with I'd say was applying the techniques. I had a real hard time with exponents such as: y=2^sin(Piex) or y=e^-5x times cos3x. I didn't fully understand discontinuous problems such as: Explain why the function f(x)= x^2-x/x^2-1 if x can't=1 and 1 if x=1 is discontinuous at x=1. Sketch the graph of the function? Sketch graphs too like this too. : sketch the graph of tan example of a function f such that- f(0)=3, limit as x approaches 0- f(x)=4, limit as x approaches 4+ f(x)= infinity, etc like 5 more of that variation all in one graph. Here is another one,The limit as h approaches 0 cos(pie+h)+1/h represents the derivative of some function f at some point x=a. state an f and a. Then just finding the serivative of functions 7= x^2 + 4x+3/ squareroot x. of course show x^3-15x+c=0 has at least one root in the interval [-2,2]. Hospital rule also. That's about it. I recommend the paperback Calculus by my friend and colleague, Elliot Gootman. It was written exactly for people like you, who are taking calculus and struggling with it. It costs$10 new on Amazon where it has 22 reviews, 19 of them 5 stars, ( two 4 stars and one 3 stars). (And the 3 star review is for an error in a link provided by Amazon, not for Gootman's book.)