Calculus: Early Transcendentals
The text reviewed here is a version (May 2013) of the single variable portion (chapters 1 -11; 318 pages) of the full text, Calculus: Early Transcendentals by Guichard et al, which includes both single and multivariable calculus and can be found at: http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/multivariable/ The single variable edition is a complete course presented in a traditional sequence, except that differential equations do not appear at all until chapter 17 of the multivariable text. Separable DEs, mandatory in the BC curriculum, are treated in 17.1, so adopters/adapters of the text may wish to have this section appended or inserted as an additional section in Chapter 9, Applications of Integration. The index could certainly be improved, particularly for those using a print copy and unable to do a search as a pdf file would allow. For example, section 8.8 on numerical integration covers the trapezoidal rule and Simpson's rule with formulas for the errors (incidentally, the midpoint rule, standard in most texts, is not discussed here), however, there is no mention in the index or in the table of contents of "trapezoidal rule." The term "related rates" appears in both the index and table of contents, while "Newton's method" appears in the table of contents and not in the index. The term "cycloid" does appear in the index (one of my tests of an index in any calculus text!), in addition to "hypercycloid"and "hypocycloid", pointing to nice exercises in the text expanding the discussion of parametric equations in 10.4. While the economies taken in the body of the text in producing such a wonderfully readable and complete text in about half the number of pages of a typical commercial text are much appreciated, the index is a different story, and 300+ pages demands a good index! Diagrams in the text are relatively few and far between, though are used effectively when present. The book does favour algebraic/analytical reasoning working from definitions over graphical arguments, and limits (including one-sided limits) receive the full epsilon-delta treatment. But there are instances/acknowledgement of graphical reasoning in the text! To illustrate, the Squeeze Theorem presented in 4.3 is followed by the comment, "This theorem can be proved using the official definition of limit. We won’t prove it here, but point out that it is easy to understand and believe graphically." There follows immediately the classic example of (x^2)sin(pi/x) as x approaches 0, complete with a diagram that illustrates the theorem perfectly. Another example appears in 4.7, where the derivative of ln(x) is derived graphically using the fact that the derivative of exp(x) is itself. I liked to see this very much! This reviewer never waits for implicit differentiation, as most texts do, before demonstrating that if dy/dx exists at (a, b) and is not zero, then dx/dy also exists at this point, and equals 1/(dy/dx). (If I am running twice as fast as you at a certain instant, then at this instant you are running half as fast as me!) The graphical derivation in the text is then followed by: "We have discussed this from the point of view of the graphs, which is easy to understand but is not normally considered a rigorous proof" it is too easy to be led astray by pictures that seem reasonable but that miss some hard point. It is possible to do this derivation without resorting to pictures, and indeed we will see an alternate approach soon. Left and right continuity are not mentioned in the text (unusual), and nor are one-sided derivatives (usual). But these are not seen as omissions; instructors with any text will want occasionally to amplify or draw diagrams, and expand/extend concepts. For example, a question such as (one of my favourites) "What is the slope of the graph of cos(sqrt(x)) at x=0?"would not be at all out of place in this book. Conversely, of course, an instructor using this text may wish not to follow the rigorous epsilon-delta approach to limits. For this reviewer, in first year, I take the limit laws to be all intuitively obvious, and no use at all on all of the "interesting" limits (what I call the indeterminate forms!) The exercises at the end of each section are well chosen and numerous enough in applications such as optimization and related rates where they need to be. They range from routine practice to more challenging questions, and most have short answers in the back of the book. These could be supplemented using the open-source online homework system WeBWorK http://webwork.maa.org/ (This reviewer has currently only had experience with the commercial systems WebAssign and MathXL). Overall, I like this book a lot. It is very well written and friendly to read, without the usual clutter of sidebars, footnotes and appendices! It moves quickly through all the important definitions and theorems of calculus with many examples and also a certain amount of just-in-time precalculus (for example, with the exponential and logarithm functions). There is appropriate rigour throughout, though the book is not at all in the style of Rudin's classic graduate text, "Principles of Mathematical Analysis!" It is much more conversational, and suited even for self-study. Maybe slightly too much so, as sometimes definitions or important formulas appear in the flow of the discourse and are not highlighted for easy visual reference for the student. Most are numbered, but the conversion formulas for switching from polar to rectangular coordinates in 10.1 would be a case in point.
The text appears to be remarkably free of errors of any kind, and any question of bias in the sense intended here not applicable. I did notice somewhere a period missing at the end of a sentence. Also, in the remark in parentheses at the end of Example 1.4 in section 1.3, which reads: "(You might think about whether we could allow 0 or (minimum of a and b) to be in the domain. They make a certain physical sense, the term "(minimum of a and b)" should be replaced with "min(a, b)/2." I did also notice, in the discussion immediately following Theorem 11.17 in section 11.2, that the constant c was not taken to be nonzero explicitly as it should have been. Of course there are natural biases expected in terms of style, rigour, choice of definitions etc., and these are mostly very agreeable to this reviewer. For example, it is refreshing to see the function 1/x declared continuous, following the definition of continuity given in section 2.5 - Adjectives for Functions. Though I may continue to say that there is an infinite discontinuity at x=0. It does go slightly against the grain however, to allow as the book does, the endpoints of an interval [a, b] to be local extrema. I like the book's treatment in 6.5 of the Mean Value Theorem (MVT), or Motor Vehicle Theorem as I call it, and let me contrast it with that given in Stewart's Calculus - Concepts and Contexts, another admirable text with which this reviewer is familiar and has taught from for some time. Both texts state the theorem and illustrate its usefulness and interpretation with respect to motion. The text under review fully proves it from Rolle's Theorem, which in turn is proved from the (unproved) Extreme Value Theorem. There is no diagram in this section, and the function g(x) = f(x)-m(x-a)-f(a) used to derive the MVT from Rolle's Theorem appears pulled out of a hat and is not explained. By contrast, Stewart does not mention Rolle's Theorem or prove the MVT, but does provide diagrams making it seem plausible. Annoyingly, however, the hypothesis in Stewart's MVT is that f(x) is differentiable on the closed interval [a, b], making it not applicable, for example, to the square root function on the interval [0, A].
The content in a mainstream calculus text such as this is relatively timeless. The book is regularly being updated by the author, taking into account feedback from users of the text. I will leave it to other reviewers more familiar with manipulating source code to comment on the ease of editing the text.
The writing of this text is exemplary.
The text uses standard mathematical terminology throughout.
The text is structured in a standard and traditional sequence for a calculus text.
The organization and flow of this text is exemplary.
There are no significant interface issues with this text. The internal hyperlinks in the pdf version of the text are a very nice feature, taking you instantly to a referenced diagram, definition, or solution of an exercise. However, it would be nice if there was a way to return to the exact previous position in the text with a single click, after viewing the reference, rather than having to navigate back using the bookmarked pages or sections of the text. I did find that clicking on the external links labeled (AP) that are attached to many of the diagrams resulted only in "page not found." I don't know why, but it can't be serious.
I did not notice any grammatical errors in the text.
The text is culturally neutral.
It has been a real pleasure reading this book.
This review originated in the BC Open Textbook Collection and is licensed under CC BY-ND.