Thomas' Calculus

I like to recommend a book called Thomas’ Calculus to anyone who is interested in calculus.
The book’s latest edition is the twelfth. The original work was done by George B. Thomas, Jr., who was a professor of mathematics at MIT. And it is revised by Maurice D. Weir and Joel Hass. They are from Naval Postgraduate School and University of California, Davis respectively. The book stands out because of several advantages, for instance, its language, graphs, exercises and structure.
The language is plain, accurate and rigorous, which is illustrated with plenty graphs. Let’s take an example of the approximating function. When explaining how we can approximate complex functions with simple ones, the author not only tells us that the tangent to the curve lies close to the curve near the point of tangency but also uses different illustrations to make it clearer. This makes it obvious for readers to see what the author is talking about. It proves the method to be right at the same time.

The exercise is designed painstakingly. Its difficulty ranges from a low level to a high one, which can guide reader through the progress of getting familiar with calculus. When doing the exercise, readers will be amazed to find that there are only answers to odd-numbered problems. Don’t get puzzled because of it. In fact, the even-numbered problems are related to the odd-numbered problems to some extent. The odd-numbered will either lay a foundation for the even one or give you inspiration to solve the next problem. What is more important, the book also has additional and advanced exercises for advanced learners. This makes the book suitable for all levels readers.

The last advantage is its structure. The book has seventeen chapters. First two chapters will let readers have a precise understanding of functions, limits and continuity, which are the fundamental preparations for calculus. And then the author spends seven chapters to discuss the concepts of differentiation and integration as well as their basic applications. In the rest chapters, further development in calculus is introduced. As readers can see, the structure is simple and clear, making it comfortable for them to know what will they learn in the future during the process of reading. They will also have more precious idea of the way that calculus is found.

That is all I want to say about Thomas Calculus. I hope anyone who is interested in calculus can read it thoroughly.




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