Book Description
From the reviews: "These books (Introduction to Calculus and Analysis Vol. I/II) are very well written. The mathematics are rigorous but the many examples that are given and the applications that are treated make the books extremely readable and the arguments easy to understand. These books are ideally suited for an undergraduate calculus course. Each chapter is followed by a number of interesting exercises. More difficult parts are marked with an asterisk. There are many illuminating figures...Of interest to students, mathematicians, scientists and engineers. Even more than that."
Newsletter on Computational and Applied Mathematics, 1991
"...one of the best textbooks introducing several generations of mathematicians to higher mathematics. ... This excellent book is highly recommended both to instructors and students."
Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum, 1991 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

An Excellent Book
This (and Vol. 2) are both really good books that anyone with an interest in mathematics should own.Is it as good as Apostol's two volumes (Tommy I and II)?No.Is it as good as Spivak's "Calculus"?No.But it is still very good because the exposition is wonderful.I own both volumes and am glad - but if you only want one Courant book, please buy "What is Mathematics".

a superb book
This is a rewrite of the great book by Courant, and it does justice to its origin.I prefer the somewhat more charming original book of Courant myself, but I have taught from this one too and learned something more.

Since the original Courant costs $120 for the 2 volume set, this volume at $33 is a bargain, so snap it up.This is 10 times as valuable as most current $130 calculus books.

More than an introduction
Those books (volumes 1-2) can be seen as a new edition of Courant's classical Differential and Integral Calculus, volumes 1-2 (that can still be used for general calculus courses). The first volume was written while Courant was still alive, and the second was postumous. I believe that they are the best work to start understanding analysis. Indeed, for the general scientist (as a physicist) it contains all the theory needed for any application. The book is not easy reading though. Much of the text can be understood on first reading, but there are pretty profound sections, mostly on the appendixes, that turn the book genuinely onto a book of analysis. The second volume requires some mathematical maturity, and I doubt whether it is suitable for beginners, but it is simply the best book of multivariate calculus that I know - and it is really difficult to think of a better presentation. Courant was a giant, and his concept of mathematics shines in every page of those books (although he did not see the publication of the second volume, his hand can be seen in every page). For the serious mathematician, a must-have. For the beginner, the best way to get in love. Courant and John don't lie, they give every proof and guide you most gently in this complicated garden called mathematics. I'd give it aleph stars if it was possible.

Absolutely beautiful!
I give 5 stars to this book because in contrast with the majority of the calculus textbooks it gives the reader the perfect combination between rigor and intuiton. Another thing that I also like a lot is the fact that volume 2 has solutions to almost all the excercises, which is great because some of the problems are very difficult. I really think this book is a "must have".

You must have this.
My review of the first volume pretty much applies here as well.How many *calculus* texts have an introduction to complex variables, and the theory of analytic functions?This is the only one I've ever seen, and I don't think anyone else could make it more enriching than Courant.Useful material on vector calculus, the theory of matrices, and even introductory material on the *calculus of variations* (something we usually don't see at *all* in the undergrad curriculum) is included.It is refreshing to have an instructor like Courant, who doesn't assume we can't follow higher mathematical roads, but also doesn't sit at the other end of the spectrum, just waving a wand and "poof, here is the result".

Courant also published a standard reference work (also two volumes, I believe) on Mathematical Physics.While the level of mathematics required is post-grad, I was still able to read sizeable sections of it without getting lost.

We can only hope Dover decides to publish Courant's works one day, to make them a little more affordable.But still, you can buy both volumes of Courant's intro to calculus for about the same price as a modern calculus text that waters down the material, and on top of that, provides inadequate explanation for the material it does cover. ... Read more

Book Description
Success in your calculus course starts here! James Stewart's CALCULUS texts are world-wide best-sellers for a reason: they are clear, accurate, and filled with relevant, real-world examples. With CALCULUS, Sixth Edition, Stewart conveys not only the utility of calculus to help you develop technical competence, but also gives you an appreciation for the intrinsic beauty of the subject. His patient examples and built-in learning aids will help you build your mathematical confidence and achieve your goals in the course! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Stewart FTW
This book is worth every penny. Stewart is recognized as one of the best calculus texts available among professors at my community college.

Its a typical math book
Its nth special... a book which covers what you need for calc III but the explanations arent the easiest to understand... Their are lots of questions though which makes it a good book for practice... They should make some of their explanations more clearer and I would have given it 4 stars.

Stewart Solution Manual for Calculus
This is NOT the solution manual for the second half of Stewart's Calculus, 5th Edition (Thomson Publishing).It's part 2 for an earlier (obsolete?) calculus book.If you need the solution's manual for Edition 5, order Dan Clegg's Student Solutions Manual for James Stewart's (Multivariable) Calculus (Thomson Publishing, 2003).

Not too bad...
I thought the text wasn't too bad, but considering the material until about chapter 17 was quite easy, that is really not saying much. The book didn't give appropriate examples of all the different special cases of line and surface integrals, which made 17.3-17.7 quite difficult; I had to learn surface integrals elsewhere. This book wasn't horrible, but I wouldn't recommend it.

could be better but does the job.
the chapter on vector calculus was confusing and the examples were ridiculous in that they didn't fully teach the concepts. if you want a real calculus book, try Anton. half of our class used Anton's Calculus to learn the material since the chapters are in the same order pretty much. ... Read more

Book Description
A major problem in current applied mathematics is the lack ofefficient and accurate techniques to solve optimization problems inthe calculus of variations and optimal control theory. This issurprising since problems occur throughout many areas of appliedmathematics, engineering, physical sciences, economics, andbiomedicine. For instance, these techniques are used to solve rockettrajectory problems, current flow problems in electronicsmanufacturing, and financial risk problems in investing. The authorshave written a unique book to remedy this problem. The first half ofthe book contains classical material in the field, the second halfunique theoretical and numerical methods for constrained problems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent textbook for students
The book covers ordinary optimization problems (constrained and unconstrained) and nonstochastic continuous-time dynamic problems. Its chapter on numerical theory and its appendix on related books areparticular useful. The book presents optimization problems in a veryunderstandable way. With many examples and graphic illustrations, studentswould be able to understand the materials easily. I would use it as atextbook for students in economics. ... Read more

Book Description

This book addresses fundamental questions related to lower semicontinuity and relaxation of functionals within the unconstrained setting, mainly in L^p spaces. It prepares the ground for the second volume where the variational treatment of functionals involving fields and their derivatives will be undertaken within the framework of Sobolev spaces.

Book Description
This comprehensive text provides all information necessary for an introductory course on the calculus of variations and optimal control theory. Following a thorough discussion of the basic problem, including sufficient conditions for optimality, the theory and techniques are extended to problems with a free end point, a free boundary, auxiliary and inequality constraints, leading to a study of optimal control theory. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A classic, richness in knowledge few books attempt anymore.
I used these books (Vols. 1&2) in my last two years of high school back in South America. I remember long nights of bad coffee and cigarettes locked in my room reading it over and over. The book is full of really cool knowledge (even for a non-mathematician). Most of today's students learn like little parrots, (without thinking or understanding) just repeating things mindlessly. This will make this book unpopular among these people because having to read a sentence and stop to figure things out on their own is too hard a challenge for them. I guess that like the high standard of the education of old when teachers loved teaching and their subject this book is also going the way of the dinosaurs. I'll get my copy before that if I were you though ;-)

A righteous calculus text
This one of the more righteous books in the author's oeuvre and that is saying something!The subject matter is closely akin to a course I took in Freshman year however it excludes manifolds and operatoins on them.In this respect, the book is not as good as some others out there for an integrated view that even a frosh can grasp.However, overlooking this shortcoming, the text is definitely righteous, being one of the few out there with this integrated approach and being a classic of sorts.

Very thorough, but very dense
I'm currently taking an honors calculus sequence at the U of WI, and have used this book and the first volume for the past three semesters.Needless to say, you have to take Apostol with a grain of salt.Although the no-frills style and lack of worked examples is upsetting to many students who are used to pictures, thorough examples, and color, these volumes cover a lot of material in a small space.And also beware; my professor and others in the math department have found errors in definitions and theorems, and the archaic notation is off-setting at times.Basically, if you're looking for straighforward information (written by a mathematician, for a mathematician), you've found the perfect book.If you're looking for an easy-to-read and understand book, keep searching.

Weak
Few books in the mathematical literature have given me so much pain as this one. Freshman year, I took a heavily theoretical linear algebra class with Tommy II as the textbook, and then the next term I took multivariable calculus out of this book as well. In either case, this book was my first experience with the material, though as an "introductory" text it should have done the job. Suffice it to say that neither experience was terribly positive.

My problem is that Apostol never seems to try to motivate ideas well, and he uses cumbersome, nonstandard, and occasionally inconsistent notation. His proofs can be inelegant and opaque at times. He is far too sparing on geometrical intuition as a way to understand the material, preferring to talk in symbols rather than pictures. (This is especially true in the first five chapters on linear algebra. His multivariable chapters are well-illustrated, but calculus on R^n seems to be trivial once calculus on R is under your belt from a good introductory book like Larson/Hostetler/Edwards at a high-school pace. Thus, the motivation is needed least where it is used most.) As a result, I feel that I still don't intuitively understand how operators work on inner-product spaces, even after trying to remedy my deficiencies for a year and a half now.

I attributed my lack of understanding to my stupidity, but then I found myself learning exterior forms from Arnol'd's excellent mathematical mechanics book and groups from Dummit/Foote's superb abstract algebra text - and understanding the exposition perfectly. And I started to feel that this book is the thing at fault.

If a prospective reader is prepared for the terseness and difficulty of Apostol, I recommend that s/he go straight to the real math rather than settling for this obfuscated treatment of inroductory subjects. It is no harder to learn the rudiments of metric topology than it is to learn Apostol's open balls, and it seems no more inspired to take on Halmos' linear algebra classic, with its intimations of Hilbert space, than it is to struggle through Apostol's treatment. (The former seems to combine considerable difficulty with terse, but wonderful, motivation, but don't take my work on that: I'm only forty pages into it!) But the books are more inspired, and the math is far more general and beautiful.

My recommendation: learn your calculus (and potentially your first linear algebra) patiently but thoroughly from a prosaic, worked-example-ridden, 1000-page monster, then go straight to the upper undergraduate/early graduate classics for the real fun. Tommy II, caught somewhere in the middle, has no place in this plan.

Review of Tommy Volume 2
I am currently enrolled in BC Calculus in my high school as well as linear algebra at a local college. What better way to learn both together than with Tommy. This is a great book to learn the connections between the two and how to do real linear algebra, not straight algebra but differentiating and doing calculus on whatever spaces you want. It's very concise, however not so clear. I skipped into BC and spend a lot of free time doing math and this book is still a bit deep. Also, the tie-ins to LA are definitely not going to be apparent off the bat. I have a really great LA teacher so I find myself skipping over some of his more complicated expressions of very simple items, however if i were a newcomer to LA, this would be totally confusing and Greek. I agree with the other reviewers, if you're familiar with calculus and LA and want to learn more about each and their connections, this is the bible, however, if you're a newcomer to one or both, definitely learn each separately and more simply. The book is very proof based and states it assumes you know how to use the mathematical objects it's presenting, now it's showing you why they work. Some of his expressions are like physics problems mindset, first look you'll have no idea, but if you think about it, eventually the ideas all fall together. A great book and recomended to anyone experienced enough to handle it. ... Read more

Book Description
The sequel to How to Ace Calculus, How to Ace the Rest of Calculus provides humorous and highly readable explanations of the key topics of second and third semester calculus-such as sequences and series, polor coordinates, and multivariable calculus-without the technical details and fine print that would be found in a formal text. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Great book.
I, personally, love this series of books.You are not likely to learn calculus from it, but it is good for review (I recommend reading it before your class or before the lecture on a particular subject) or if you are just looking for an alternate explanation to a topic or technique.It was a big help in my studies.

Calculus now makes sense!
I am graduate student in Pharmacy, but had to take Calculus as prerequisite for more complicated classes, like Differential Equation and Physical Chemistry. Although I had very basic Calculus in my undergraduation program, it didn't make sense to me. I borrowed this book from a friend and started reading in paralel with textbook. Calculus is now becoming funny!!!! I strongly reccomend this book for those who does not understand what genious say in common textbooks! I really would like to find other Streetwise Guides like this one in other areas, like statistics, etc!!!!

Best Side-Text Available
Students of calculus often find that they "don't understand" what the textbook is saying, what the teacher is saying, what the problem is saying/asking. This book explains the mathematics with integrity and humor. Over the past several years I am sure that more than a hundred of my students have purchased this book and the prequel, How to Ace Calculus, and to a one they all love it! When the stuff in class doesn't hang together we all turn to "Colin and friends" to see how they explain it.

Saved Me in Calc II !!!!
This book is great.Provides a solid foundation for the concepts in calc 2, explains the whys, and puts them all into perspective.Was more helpful than my prof or my textbook!Highly recommend...helps SO much.

Calculus made Fun!
Although I read this book over two years ago, I still use it as a reference. Instead of just doing the math of a vector field, multiple integral or divergence of something and calling it a day, they give you real life examples of how to apply the just learned math. The best part is the examples are really funny, but I once took a memorization class and your suppose to make up goofy stuff so its so dumb that you do remember it. Its also in a really good format for kids who are advanced students. ... Read more

Book Description
The calculus of variations is one of the oldest subjects in mathematics, yet is very much alive and is still evolving. Besides its mathematical importance and its links to other branches of mathematics, such as geometry or differential equations, it is widely used in physics, engineering, economics and biology.

This book serves both as a guide to the expansive existing literature and as an aid to the non-specialist — mathematicians, physicists, engineers, students or researchers — in discovering the subjects most important problems, results and techniques. Despite the aim of addressing non-specialists, mathematical rigor has not been sacrificed; most of the theorems are either fully proved or proved under more stringent conditions.

The book, containing more than seventy exercises with detailed solutions, is well designed for a course both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. ... Read more

Book Description
Success in your calculus course starts here! James Stewart’s CALCULUS texts are world-wide best-sellers for a reason: they are clear, accurate, and filled with relevant, real-world examples. With CALCULUS, Sixth Edition, Stewart conveys not only the utility of calculus to help you develop technical competence, but also gives you an appreciation for the intrinsic beauty of the subject. His patient examples and built-in learning aids will help you build your mathematical confidence and achieve your goals in the course! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Typical Math Textbook
I feel sorry for the non-math inclined person who has to take an online Calculus course using this textbook. Math teachers rarely teach math the way the math textbook they use explains the topic. Typically a math teacher shows you how to solve problems then (sometimes) shows you why things work that way. This book, like typical math texts, gives a short written introduction to each topic then dives right into full-blown examples with the whys and hows all jumbled together. As a math person, this is workable for me as I can pull it all apart and reprocess it back together and I appreciate the in-depth analysis, but a non-math major could get lost very quickly. ... Read more

Book Description
The long awaited second edition of Dynamic Optimization is now available. Clear exposition and numerous worked examples made the first edition the premier text on this subject. Now, the new edition is expanded and updated to include essential coverage of current developments on differential games, especially as they apply to important economic questions; new developments in comparative dynamics; and new material on optimal control with integral state equations.

The second edition of Dynamic Optimization provides expert coverage on:- methods of calculus of variations - optimal control - continuous dynamic programming - stochastic optimal control -differential games. The authors also include appendices on static optimization and on differential games.

Now in its new updated and expanded edition, Dynamic Optimization is, more than ever, the optimum choice for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in economics, mathematical methods in economics and dynamic optimization, management science, mathematics and engineering.

New features of Dynamic Optimization will show students:advances in how to do comparative dynamics; how to optimally switch from one state equation to another during the planning period; how to take into account the history of the system governing an optimization problem through the use of an integral state equation; and how to apply differential games to problems in economics and management sciences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good book, bad printing
The book is really good. However, it is missing a bunch of paragraphs. I thought it was just my book, but I checked with my friends who bought it too (it is required for one of our classes) and their books had the same missing paragraphs.I would highly recommend this book, but would buy the older versions of the same editions, because those don't seem to have the mis-printing problem.

Great clear textbook
I believe this was the first textbook to introduce dynamic optimization to economists. It's simply and clearly written. Each chapter introduces a new development, goes into the theory behind it and gives examples, in just a few pages so you can go through it in bite-sized chunks. The style is unfussy but doesn't talk down to you. Two appendices explain important theorems in calculus and differential equations, briefly but in enough detail to be usable if you aren't familiar with those parts of the maths. This is an excellent textbook, although I can't compare it with the competition.

Chiang's book is best.
This book is decent, but I think that Chiang book is better that this book, I recommend "Elements of Dynamic Optimization" from Alpha Chiang (ISBN: 157766096X), it's better.

A must book for every serious economics student
There is no doubt that to master in advanced economics one should have a firm grasp on mathematical tools.Kamien and Schwartz's Dynamiz Optimization is the perfect book to this end.Actually it deserves a rating more than five stars. ... Read more

Product Description
This Elibron Classics edition is a facsimile reprint of a 1861 edition by Macmillan and Co., Cambridge. ... Read more

Book Description
Study smarter and work toward the grade you want with this helpful guide. You'll find a short list of key concepts; a short list of skills to master; a brief introduction to the ideas of each section; an elaboration of the concepts and skills, including extra worked-out examples; and links in the margin to earlier and later material in the text and Study Guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Helpful Suppliment
This book really helps out when you have to learn on your own.It gives a detailed work out of each problem.Helps by showing the steps and process of working the problems.Definitely worth having. ... Read more

Book Description
Text extracted from opening pages of book: International Series in Pure and Applied Mathematics WILLIAM TED MARTIN, Consulting Editor Calculus of Variations International Series in Pure and Applied Mathematics WILLIAM TED MARTIN, Consulting Editor GOLOMB and SHANKS Elements of Ordinary Differential Equations LASS Vector and Tensor Analysis LEIGHTON An Introduction to the Theory of Differential Equations NEHARI Conformal Mapping SNEDDON Fourier Transforms WEINSTOCK Calculus of Variations CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS With Applications to Physics and Engineering Robert Weinstock Acting Assistant Professor in Mathematics tita nford I ' nivcrsity FIRST EDITION New York Toronto London McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY INC. 1952 CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS Copyright, 1952, by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publishers. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 51-12654 THE MAPLE PRESS COMPANY, YORK, PA. To Betty PREFACE There seems to have been published, up to the present time, no English language volume in which an elementary introduction to the calculus of variations is followed by extensive application of the subject to problems of physics and theoretical engineering. The present volume is offered as partial fulfillment of the need for such a book. Thus its chief purpose is twofold : ( i) To provide for the senior or first-year graduate student in mathe matics, science, or engineering an introduction to the ideas and techniques of the calculus of variations. ( The material of the first seven chapters with selected topics from the later chapters has been used several times as the subject matter of a 10-week course in the Mathematics Department at Stanford University.) ( ii) To illustrate the application of the calculus of variations in several fields outside the realm of pure mathematics. ( By far the greater emphasis is placed upon this second aspect of the book's purpose.) The range of topics considered may be determined at a glance in the table of contents. Mention here of some of the more significant omis sions may be pertinent: The vague, mechanical d method is avoided throughout. Thus, while no advantage is taken of a sometimes convenient shorthand tactic, there is eliminated a source of confusion which often grips the careful student when confronted with its use. No attempt is made to treat problems of sufficiency or existence: no consideration is taken of the second variation or of the conditions of Legendrc, Jacobi, and Weicrstrass. Besides being outside the scope of the chief aim of this book, these matters are excellently treated in the volumes of Bolza and Bliss listed in the Bibliography. Expansion theorems for the eigenfunctions associated with certain boundary-value problems are stated without proof. The proofs, beyond the scope of this volume, can be constructed, in most instances, on the basis of the theory of integral equations. Space limitations prevent inclusion of such topics as perturbation theory, heat flow, hydrodynamics, torsion and buckling of bars, Schwingcr's treatment of atomic scattering, and others. However, the reader who has mastered the essence of the material included should have little difficulty in applying the calculus of variations to most of the subjects which have been squeezed out. viii PREFACE It is hardly necessary to mention the debt I owe to nearly all the works mentioned in the Bibliography; Courant-Hilbert has been especially helpful. In the early stages of the work, comments from my former students Gordon Kent and Peter Szego were useful. Occasional chats with colleagues in the Stanford Mathematics Department were simi larly helpful. I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my wife, Elizabeth B. Weinstock, whose keen critical faculty is responsible for several important corrective changes in the text, who worked out nearly all the exercises, who did all ... Read more

Book Description
Vector calculus is the foundation stone on which a vast amount of applied mathematics is based. Topics such as fluid dynamics, solid mechanics and electromagnetism depend heavily on the calculus of vector quantities in three dimensions. This book covers the material in a comprehensive but concise manner, combining mathematical rigour with physical insight. There are many diagrams to illustrate the physical meaning of the mathematical concepts, which is essential for a full understanding of the subject. Each chapter concludes with a summary of the most important points, and there are worked examples that cover all of the material. The final chapter introduces some of the most important applications of vector calculus, including mechanics and electromagnetism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Handicapped by a Big Slosh of English Snootiness and Geometrical Pomposity, but
its selection of problems and its focus on vector calculus are both quite good. Perhaps both are excellent, but my current experience and intuition in this subject area prevent me from being more certain.

Either way, a much more physically intuitive approach with more problem-solution examples and less geometrical rigor is possible, that much is certain.

Most importantly, in-text solutions are provided.There is no problem with merely an answer, all have something more. There are wayfewer problems as compared to a schaum's outline (on the order of 30 times fewer).Though it also costs two or three times more than a Schaum's, it's certainly much more physically intuitive than the Schaum's on vector/tensor analysis by Murray R. Spiegel.

I think this book would make its publisher and author a lot more money (by selling a hell of a lot more of them) if it were reduced in price. It would be a win-win for everybody who, I'm pretty certain, matters here.

Great intro for beginning undergraduate students
Very good introduction to Vector Calculus.Perfect appropriated for home study when you have a relative good knowledge of basic Calculus.
Theorems and formulas are physicaly supported in there explanation.Some proofs in the chapter of Tensors are less rigor to make them understandable.
Also contains some beautiful examples and exercises (could be more) of Mathematical Physics.Good balanced structure of the subject matter who brings you to the equation of Navier-Stokes and more in the last short chapter of applications.
Very readable book that I could understand entirly without help,even after leaving school with a limited mathematical education 25 years ago.

Well written & applications oriented
I am using this book to review vector calculus and have found that this text gives much insight into the physical nature of vectors.As a practicing engineer, I like that it omits lengthy proofs and gets to the point quickly. My understanding of the subject has increased and been reinforced since first taking the vector calculus course in college.The conceptual framework behind div, grad, curl and associated theorems is well explained.I like the association between vectors and matrices to facilitate computations.Use this text for an applications-oriented book on the subject.If you are interested in more mathematical proof then this would not be the book.The author has answers to all problems making this a great self-study text in a minimum of time. After going through this book, the language of theoretical aerodynamics is much more understandable and has given me much insight into the subject.

nice read, no rigor, too few exercises
This book is quite easy to read, and it gives a good intuitive picture of the subject. Mathematicly it is not of so much value. I think its very good for someone who wants to study electromagnetic fields, or some other fields in physics and want to be able to calculate different integrals (perhaps there are more applications than physics).

Physicists often do non-rigorous arguments, and it is very possible to do so and still be certain what you are doing makes sence. Rigor can take up too much of your time :)

But if you want to go deep into physics I would recommend spending your money on some deeper and more rigourous text, it will be useful in the long run.

There are some incorrect proofs, that I believe are absolute nonsense, but as i said, this book is only good for your feeling of vector calculus and ability to calculate integrals.

I would give the book a 4/5 but you simply cant learn calculation without many problems of varying difficulty. If this is your only book, it is absolutely essential that you get some kind of collection of exercises too. There are only 9 exercises on the chapter on curvilinear coordinates (cylindrical, spherical, etc.)

I think you can get a better book for the money, but its not too bad.

Nice and Succinct Book on the Subject
If there is one thing I adore about Springer books is that they are cheap, to the point, and very accessible. This book is no exception. I used this book for self study after I took a Calculus III course. My understanding of the concepts I learned in class improved two-fold. There is really nothing negative I can say about this book. It is probably the best buy I've ever made yet. I wish all college texts were like this. ... Read more

Book Description
Success in your calculus course starts here! James Stewart's CALCULUS texts are world-wide best-sellers for a reason: they are clear, accurate, and filled with relevant, real-world examples. With CALCULUS: EARLY TRANCENDENTALS, Sixth Edition, Stewart conveys not only the utility of calculus to help you develop technical competence, but also gives you an appreciation for the intrinsic beauty of the subject. His patient examples and built-in learning aids will help you build your mathematical confidence and achieve your goals in the course! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Puzzled by Limits and Derivatives?
This textbook is great combined with Calculus for Dummies. The two books together go in-depth about limits, derivatives, trig, algebra, and if your algebra is rusty it starts off with a precalculus. I highly recommend the two books together. The examples in the Single Variable Calculus:Early Transcendentals are very vague and dont show some very crucial steps but over all the book I received was in mint condition, and I just love the new book smell and knowing no one else had it but me. Thanks Amazon! J.T.

A WASTE OF INK AND TREES - does not teach fundamentals of calculus
I am currently a freshman in college just finishing a calculus course, and throughout the whole semester i have been given homework assignments supposedly "based on readings in the book." Every homework assignment has resulted in a severe headache due to countless hours spent on solving problems that are so many levels above what the chapters actually explain. There are problems at the end of each chapter based on its teachings, but so many of them require knowledge of irrelevant identities never taught throughout the book. The fact that I had a good teacher for that class is the only reason why I got an A, because this textbook is a miserable labyrinth of assumptions and vague teachings. I am starting to believe that the only reason universities support this book is because of its online homework system.

Not a good book for beginners!
I'm not impressed with this book as a learning guide. As others have said, you can't learn calculus on your own with this book and I can assure you they are correct with that claim. You'll definitely need a person with a thorough knowledge of calculus to answer every problem you encounter and trust me, you're going to encounter A LOT with this book! The example problems do very little with helping to solve the assignment problems. In fact, the example problems are as good as useless to me because the author doesn't EXPLAIN how they're solved. He just solves them and you have to figure out how he's doing it! It's so frustrating. As a student, there's nothing more discouraging than not being able to understand how to work your way through a problem and that's where this author fails. Rather than building your confidence and starting easy and gradually making the problems more difficult, you're just thrown into the meat grinder of calculus and expected to spend X amount of time deciphering gibberish formulas and trying to piece them into place in hopes that you've correctly applied it to the assignment problem. Every single problem I've worked through I've had to look in the answer section only to find out my answer as wrong and re-work the problem again and again to solve it. If your school uses this book (ie: you're forced into using this book), then I HIGHLY recommend you get the solutions manual and any other text such as a 'Dummies' book to accompany this one because it's going to be hard to learn calculus with this book alone.

Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. If you're not required to buy it, then don't!

SORRY but this object with paper is HORRIBLE "I CAN'T CALL IT A TEXTBOOK"
I'm a freshman and this book is used for my Calculus class and it is probably the worst thing to "learn" calculus from. The examples in this book are in no way supportive of the problems. The problems at the end of each chapter are pretty difficult and the examples do not help. There is little explanation as to how to solve the problems and does not help build a solid foundation of fundamental ideas. The book is horrible in theory and application. I really want to write a letter to Stewart telling him how bad of a book it really is. Please do not try to purchase this book. It is not sufficient at all to learn calculus from.

Inconsistent
This text, though very readable, teaches too much through example problems as opposed to actually explaining the information in the text. Presentation of some topics (chapter 6 particularly) was very poor. Some chapters were out of place (chapter 9 on differential equations, which should have been placed right before the last chapter). ... Read more

Book Description
This monograph is unique in its treatment of the application of methods of nonstandard analysis to the theory of curves in the calculus of variations. It will be of particular value to researchers in the calculus of variations and optimal control theory. ... Read more

Book Description
A paperback edition of this successful textbook for final year undergraduate mathematicians and control engineering students, this book contains exercises and many worked examples, with complete solutions and hints making it ideal not only as a class textbook but also for individual study. The intorduction to optimal control begins by considering the problem of minimizing a function of many variables, before moving on to the main subject: the optimal control of systems governed by ordinary differential equations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Superb
I have read a large number of books on this field. This is by far the most comprehensive book on the subject. It is suitable for self study, and gives a true jist for optimal control

Not enough words
If you have a good professor to guide your through, this book may be ok. If you're on your own - forget about it.

A genuinely readable introdution for the applied scientist
This is an excellent introduction to the calculus of variations and Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. It is written exceptionally clearly and gives the reader access to the calculus without becoming bogged down in lengthy diffcult proofs (which are left to the end).

I recommend this book to any student or scientist who is not a pure mathematician but wishes to understand and apply analytic tools of optimization. ... Read more