Customer Rating: 
Summary: the bridge between a calculus textbook and actual understanding
Comment: This book casually fills in the blanks between knowing what calculus looks like and why it is that it actually works. The authors make it comfortable to get into understanding the calculus without one intimidating and lifeless mechanism after another. This would not be a good book to learn calculus from, but it is truly the best complement to a standard calculus textbook.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Annotations amount to Trisomy 21
Comment: Martin Gardner's updates feel like big brother. Silvanus P. Thompson, though a poly-math, was indeed an electrical engineer. The same cannot be said about Gardner.
Even in Thompson's last edition (3rd), he good-naturedly taunted and teased mathematicians. If an update really was necessary, it should have been done by an EE like Paul Nahin (wrote the 1988 IEEE Oliver Heaviside biography and An Imaginary Tale among others), not by a Mathematician like Martin Gardner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Calculus Primer
Comment: If you have already taken Triginometry and College Algebra, you are perfectly tuned to read and appreciate this book.
Forget the "Dummies" or "Idiots" books that only superficially skim the meanings of the calculus: this one truly *delivers* on it's promise to make calculus easy by explaining not just the "hows," but the "whys!"
I give this book a full 5 star rating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best calculus book out there
Comment: I wish I had been given this book in high school. I'm currently working on a computer science degree so I bought this as a kind of tutor for stuff I may have forgotten. It's totally worth it, and it makes it easier to understand - for anyone who may be afraid of math.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best introductory calculus book ever...
Comment: Alleluia ! ! At last, a book about calculus that gives the reader the motivation to study it further. This book should be given to EVERY freshman in EVERY country. Or even better: this book should be given to EVERY teacher of calculus to show that calculus can ALSO be fun to learn.
Too many students are running away from calculus, simply because they do not perceive what calculus is about and how to use it. This book also transmits the passion of the author for calculus, which is rare enough to be mentioned.
Summary: the bridge between a calculus textbook and actual understanding
Comment: This book casually fills in the blanks between knowing what calculus looks like and why it is that it actually works. The authors make it comfortable to get into understanding the calculus without one intimidating and lifeless mechanism after another. This would not be a good book to learn calculus from, but it is truly the best complement to a standard calculus textbook.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Annotations amount to Trisomy 21
Comment: Martin Gardner's updates feel like big brother. Silvanus P. Thompson, though a poly-math, was indeed an electrical engineer. The same cannot be said about Gardner.
Even in Thompson's last edition (3rd), he good-naturedly taunted and teased mathematicians. If an update really was necessary, it should have been done by an EE like Paul Nahin (wrote the 1988 IEEE Oliver Heaviside biography and An Imaginary Tale among others), not by a Mathematician like Martin Gardner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Calculus Primer
Comment: If you have already taken Triginometry and College Algebra, you are perfectly tuned to read and appreciate this book.
Forget the "Dummies" or "Idiots" books that only superficially skim the meanings of the calculus: this one truly *delivers* on it's promise to make calculus easy by explaining not just the "hows," but the "whys!"
I give this book a full 5 star rating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best calculus book out there
Comment: I wish I had been given this book in high school. I'm currently working on a computer science degree so I bought this as a kind of tutor for stuff I may have forgotten. It's totally worth it, and it makes it easier to understand - for anyone who may be afraid of math.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best introductory calculus book ever...
Comment: Alleluia ! ! At last, a book about calculus that gives the reader the motivation to study it further. This book should be given to EVERY freshman in EVERY country. Or even better: this book should be given to EVERY teacher of calculus to show that calculus can ALSO be fun to learn.
Too many students are running away from calculus, simply because they do not perceive what calculus is about and how to use it. This book also transmits the passion of the author for calculus, which is rare enough to be mentioned.