Whitman Calculus
The current open textbook under review is Whitman Calculus (single variable) in pdf format. The text covers appropriately all areas and ideas of standard calculus 1 and calculus 2 courses taught at US universities and colleges, although the ordering of the contents might be a little bit different from other popular calculus texts such as Stewart Calculus or Thomas’ Calculus. There are eleven chapters in the text including: chapter 1 analytic geometry, chapter 2 instantaneous rate of change: the derivative, chapter 3 rules of finding derivatives, chapter 4 transcendental functions, chapter 5 curve sketching, chapter 6 applications of the derivative, chapter 7 integration, chapter 8 techniques of integration, chapter 9 applications of integration, chapter 10 polar coordinates, parametric equations and chapter 11 sequences and series. The Whitman Calculus provides an effective index and glossary with linked page numbers for easy and quick referencing purposes.
The contents of Whitman Calculus are accurate, error-free and unbiased at the same level as other popular calculus texts normally used by US institutions. Unavoidably there might be a few typos or minor changes, but the author maintains an active change log at http://www.whitman.edu/mathematics/multivariable/changelog.txt.
As in other popular calculus textbooks, the contents in Whitman Calculus are up-to-date and will not make the text obsolete within a short period of time. The text is written in a logical manner and the content is arranged in chapters and sections, easy for future updates. In addition the author maintains an active change log in case there might be a few typos found or there might be minor changes needed in future.
Whitman Calculus is written in a clear and straightforward manner. The technical terms are explained with enough context elaborating the terms for a better understanding, and are sometimes described in a conversational style which is friendly to readers.
The text is consistent in terms of the terminology used in standard calculus. The text is written in traditional math textbook format logically with chapters, sections and exercises after each section, selected answers, useful formulas and the index.
Whitman Calculus is easily and readily divisible into short sections that can be assigned section-wise within the course. The author even provides two additional versions of the text: 2-up version (two book pages per printed page) and 4-up version (four book pages per printed page). I think this is really a great feature for college professors and students using the text in classroom. The text can easily be reorganized and realigned without much disruption to the reader.
The topics in Whitman Calculus are presented in a logical and clear manner. The text is organized in chapters and sections with a logical flow of the materials of calculus, covering chapter 1 analytic geometry, chapter 2 instantaneous rate of change: the derivative, chapter 3 rules of finding derivatives, chapter 4 transcendental functions, chapter 5 curve sketching, chapter 6 applications of the derivative, chapter 7 integration, chapter 8 techniques of integration, chapter 9 applications of integration, chapter 10 polar coordinates, parametric equations and chapter 11 sequences and series.
The navigation of the text is simple and easy. The images/charts used in the text are nice and clean to reflect the related contents without any confusion to the reader. The text would be even better if the author could add more images/graphics to the text.
The text generally contains no grammatical errors.
The text is not culturally intensive or offensive in any way. The examples/exercises used in the text are appropriate in terms of races, ethnicities and backgrounds.
I think that Whitman Calculus is a wonderful open source calculus textbook overall, and would like to recommend Whitman Calculus to math professors and college students for classroom use. One area in which the text could be improved is the volume of the exercises. The text could be enhanced if the author would add more exercises to the text.