Is 'Calculus for the Practical Man' a Good Introduction to Calculus?

[theoristo]

I just Read arithemetic for the practical man and found really interesting...there's also Algebra for the Practical Man,Geometry for the Practical Man,Trigonometry for the Practical Man,Calculus for the Practical Man And everybody knows that the great feynman learned from these books...I would someone to make a quick review of them...especially Calculus for the practical man,please?what I really want to know is if Calculus for the practical man would be a good first introduction to calculus?

 

[verty]

It seems good. If you don't mind that the names are a bit different and it may use old trig rations like versine, and you skip the stuff about log and trig tables, then it seems like it has good coverage of what you need to know. Although the integration section is not as full as with a modern book. I see no partial fraction decomposition for example.

 

[Tallus Bryne]

Algebra for the Practical Man is great, I like how Thompson(the author) writes about the subject. Comparing it to everything that I've learned, I'd say it is fairly thorough for it's size. I have also went through a little bit of Geometry and Trig for the Practical Man and they are pretty helpful as well.

I hope to go through Calculus for the Practical Man once I've finished my calc I, II, and III courses that I'm in the process of taking. My friend owns a copy of CFTPM, and by his opinion it was a useful intro to Calc for him. It may not be as thorough as a modern Calc text, however. For my Calculus classes, I'm using Calculus: Early Transcendental Functions by Larson and Edwards; I'd recommend a cheap older edition of this if you are also considering something more up to date for an intro to Calc.