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Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

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Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#31

Post by zdean »

kjhughes wrote: post #13

Summer of 1980, going into my senior year in high school, I mentioned I'd be taking Calculus next year to a co-worker a couple years older than I. He said he had the best book in the world on Calculus, and he loaned me his copy of Silvanus P Thompson's Calculus made easy . I thoroughly enjoyed that book, benefited from its intuitive explanations, and forever appreciated his recommendation. If I may similarly influenc…

Would you happen to know of any websites, video series, books, etc that would be in the same vein as these 2 sources but geared towards very young students (elementary/middle school math)? ...so that they can understand it conceptually from a young start.

EDIT: I'm working through Khan Academy with one of my kids...would like to find other resources as well.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#32

Post by [deleted] »

zdean wrote: post #31
kjhughes wrote: post #13

Summer of 1980, going into my senior year in high school, I mentioned I'd be taking Calculus next year to a co-worker a couple years older than I. He said he had the best book in the world on Calculus, and he loaned me his copy of Silvanus P Thompson's Calculus made easy . I thoroughly enjoyed that book, benefited from its intuitive explanations, and forever appreciated his recommendation. If I may similarly influenc…

Would you happen to know of any websites, video series, books, etc that would be in the same vein as these 2 sources but geared towards very young students (elementary/middle school math)? ...so that they can understand it conceptually from a young start. EDIT: I'm working through Khan Academy with one of my kids...would like to find other resources as well.

[deleted]

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#33

Post by sideproject »

partisan wrote: post #26
sideproject wrote: post #22

Why didn't any one tell me about this book when I was younger! This is so good. :)

As someone who struggled through calculus, this book would have made a huge difference for me. Just reading through the first few pages brought a smile to my face that someone could so plainly explain these critical concepts in such a familiar way. Why didn't my professors do that?

Totally agree with you. I did advanced research in computer science without fully grasping integrals - only if I had this book!

But you're right, why can't things be like this? Then I think, there is a certain art to having the ability to explain something so easily.. props to reddit's elif subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/)

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#34

Post by knight17 »

mcguire wrote: post #16

Since no one else has mentioned it, there is an updated edition available in print, with updates by Martin Gardener.

> ... a 1998 update by Martin Gardner is available from St. Martin's Press which provides an introduction; three preliminary chapters explaining functions, limits, and derivatives; an appendix of recreational calculus problems; and notes for modern readers. Gardner changes "fifth form boys" to the more American sounding (and gender neutral) "high school students," updates many now obsolescent mathematical notations or terms, and uses American decimal dollars and cents in currency examples.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_Made_Easy

Seems like a good update to a classic, but there are some in the reviews complaining about Gardner https://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Made-Easy-Silvanus-Thompson/...

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#35

Post by noam87 »

userbinator wrote: post #30
tzs wrote: post #6

That PDF is just a bunch of scanned images of the book. It's large and cumbersome in many readers. There is a much better PDF at Project Gutenberg [1]. The Gutenberg PDF is only 1.9 MB, compared to 12 MB for the scanned image PDF. The Gutenberg page for this book [2] also has a link to the LaTeX source for the PDF. [1] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33283/33283-pdf.pdf [2] http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33283

You say 1.9MB, the Gutenberg page says 1.8MB, and the download itself is only 1.18MB thanks to gzip. The main difference is that the Gutenberg PDF is a transcribed, cleaned-up version. As much as this probably makes me sound like an audiophile, I actually prefer the raw scans over what may essentially be a reprint. They show all the blemishes, unofficial additions, and other marks that make the book look more "real"…

This is why I love used books. My copy of Schopenhauer's collected essays has gone through 4 owners since 1914, all 4 of whom have signed and dated the front cover, all of 4 of whom have marked and underlined at different spots (including, now, myself). My copy of Riverside Chaucer went through two students before me. And they all pick up their own unique scents along the way (my girlfriend jokes that I only buy books to smell them).

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#36

Post by d-sc »

zdean wrote: post #31
kjhughes wrote: post #13

Summer of 1980, going into my senior year in high school, I mentioned I'd be taking Calculus next year to a co-worker a couple years older than I. He said he had the best book in the world on Calculus, and he loaned me his copy of Silvanus P Thompson's Calculus made easy . I thoroughly enjoyed that book, benefited from its intuitive explanations, and forever appreciated his recommendation. If I may similarly influenc…

Would you happen to know of any websites, video series, books, etc that would be in the same vein as these 2 sources but geared towards very young students (elementary/middle school math)? ...so that they can understand it conceptually from a young start. EDIT: I'm working through Khan Academy with one of my kids...would like to find other resources as well.

Keep up with teaching your kids. I took calculus in 8th grade and having it as a base understanding has been invaluable in surviving college engineering.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#37

Post by ice109 »

noam87 wrote: post #29

In a similar vein: "Probability Through Problems": https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-978-0-387-21659... I love this book. What's the best way to learn a mathematical field? To discover it yourself, piece by piece! I wish this were a series.

fantastic. thank you very much

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#38

Post by kjhughes »

zdean wrote: post #31
kjhughes wrote: post #13

Summer of 1980, going into my senior year in high school, I mentioned I'd be taking Calculus next year to a co-worker a couple years older than I. He said he had the best book in the world on Calculus, and he loaned me his copy of Silvanus P Thompson's Calculus made easy . I thoroughly enjoyed that book, benefited from its intuitive explanations, and forever appreciated his recommendation. If I may similarly influenc…

Would you happen to know of any websites, video series, books, etc that would be in the same vein as these 2 sources but geared towards very young students (elementary/middle school math)? ...so that they can understand it conceptually from a young start. EDIT: I'm working through Khan Academy with one of my kids...would like to find other resources as well.

Hmm, how about a technique rather than a resource...

Look for opportunities to expand what they're doing in school. For example, after my kids had covered place values in school, I taught them binary. Their knowledge of base 10 is so much more robust when they learn base 2 as well.

Point is, I bet you already know plenty to be that ideal resource you seek for them. Good for you for wanting to start early.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#39

Post by appleiigs »

noam87 wrote: post #35
userbinator wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say 1.9MB, the Gutenberg page says 1.8MB, and the download itself is only 1.18MB thanks to gzip. The main difference is that the Gutenberg PDF is a transcribed, cleaned-up version. As much as this probably makes me sound like an audiophile, I actually prefer the raw scans over what may essentially be a reprint. They show all the blemishes, unofficial additions, and other marks that make the book look more "real"…

This is why I love used books. My copy of Schopenhauer's collected essays has gone through 4 owners since 1914, all 4 of whom have signed and dated the front cover, all of 4 of whom have marked and underlined at different spots (including, now, myself). My copy of Riverside Chaucer went through two students before me. And they all pick up their own unique scents along the way (my girlfriend jokes that I only buy book…

I'm with you guys! This book has some serious character. The cover, handwriting, imperfections, and on top of it all, the writing style.

The problem with used books tho is that sometimes I find hair. Ugh.

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