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By Adrian Banner- I purchased The Calculus Lifesaver book written by Adrian Banner when I discovered that my knowledge of Calculus was beginning to get a bit rusty and I wanted to clear up some of the mathematical cob webs in my head.
I read Mr. Banner's book cover to cover in a little less than 4 weeks. The book has 30 chapters consisting of 702 pages and has 46 pages of appendices.
Mr. Banner gives an in depth treatment of all the standard stuff like limits, differentiation, integration, Taylor and MacLaurin series, and he gives an overview of topics such as parametric equations, complex numbers, arc lengths, surface areas, and volumes and differential equations.
All in all I feel that this book was well written, easy to read, and interesting. Mr. Banner's approach is quite different from the classical, almost stuff shirt approach that was typical of the math books that I used way back in my under grad days. He does interject some colorful language from time to time which initially surprised me, and then later on amused me, and always kept me interested.
This is an excellent book for those students looking for a second source to review for an up coming midterm exam. Treatment of specific subject areas is clear, concise and can be read and understood in short order.
This is an excellent book for people who need to quickly come back up to speed on subjects that may have become a bit clouded over the years.
This also is an excellent book for people who are learning Calculus for the first time. If you are in the process of learning Calculus the key to really understanding the subject is to work countless problems until the mechanics, concepts, and procedures are firmly ingrained in your mind. For these people I strongly recommend a companion text called "The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems" by W. Michael Kelly. A serious student could learn the concepts and procedures from Mr. Banner's book and then work many of the one thousand problems provided in Mr. Kelly's book to gain proficiency.
- I was a math/chemistry major and have a PhD in Biochemistry. I was looking for a review book to teach my son after being away from Calculus for 30 years. This is the Best Calculus book - Ever!! It is written in plain English as if you had your own personal tutor. There are many many examples of problems solved for you with step by step explanation and some real world examples. This book is must if you are taking Calculus for the first time or reviewing it. This book is Awesome!
It does contain the most thorough and understandable explanations that I have seen to date.
By Robert F. Blitzer
- This is the best textbook on precalculus on the market. Overall, the explanations are very clear, there are plenty of examples to work from, and as with most textbooks the answer to every other question is in the back of the book. The CD that comes with the text is also a huge help, as you get to see an instructor work through problems step by step, and not just a few problems, 20-30 per chapter.
Blitzer also has a website where if you feel there weren't enough problems in the book, you can work more online. The only problem I had with this textbook is that it fell apart after one semester and it appeared other students had the same problem. Its simply too big without the proper binding. However if that doesn't bother you, this is simply the best precalculus textbook on the market.
- Bob Blitzer has done a wonderful job of compiling a precalculus textbook that can teach a course better than many professors.
The first thing that struck me about this book was the casual tone. Blitzer writes as if he were a friend explaining a concept. He is not afraid to show helpful acronyms or pneumonic devices (ASTC - all students take calculus - to help remember which trig functinos were positive in which quadrants), and he often gives hints in the margin that clear things up or elucidate certain mathematical concepts. I know that these helpful tips have saved my skin on multiple occasions.
The opposite of Blitzer's tone is one of a stern and serious math professor. It was a blessing in disguise that my precalculus teacher was just like this. She lectured from the textbook (and did a much poorer job of teaching than the book itself), so I was able to read ahead, take notes based on the book (instead of her lectures), and finish the homework assignments in class.
Blitzer has identified many ways to apply the math to real life, whether it involves angular velocity in physics or population growth. Obviously, certain topics are begging to be applied (right triangle trigonometry, for instance), but Blitzer does a great job of making the math seem useful.
Another positive aspect about this book is the way Blitzer designed his list of problems. The answer to every odd problem is found in the back of the book, but every even problem is closely modeled after its odd predecessor. Thus, even without a definitive answer, you can be sure that you did the problem correctly because you saw an extremely similar one just a few seconds ago.
Blizter is also able to integrate the widespread technology of graphing calculators. He makes the assumption that a precalculus student should have access to some sort of graphing calculator and requests their use on quite a few problems. When graphs are shown, Blitzer has the foresight to indicate the dimensions and scale of the graph so the student can recreate the graph on their calculator.
After going through every section of this book, the only negative comment in my mind is that simple harmonic motion is explained rather poorly, but this is a math textbook, not a physics treatise, and thus this point can be safely disregarded. Bob Blitzer has composed a magnificent math tome, and I strongly recommend it to everyone.
By Ron Larson
- As a math tutor who works with students at many different levels. I recently bought this book to use with one of my students.
I like this book because it matches each of the sections in the accompanying textbook. As the title of this workbook says, it is "practice workbook with examples" and there are indeed examples with each section.
We use this to supplement the work the student is doing in class (after completing the textbook exercises). I appreciate having extra work that correlates to the work he is doing in class.
- The Algebra I Workbook has been helpful for extra algebra practice and corresponds nicely with the textbook. My son's algebra grades have improved from the extra practice in the workbook. I'd recommend it for anyone looking for additional algebra practice.
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