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Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

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Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#152

I'm embarassed somewhat to say this, but over the past few weeks I've been taking the courses on Khan Academy on mathematics. I'm nearly 30. and I'm not talking about brushing up on my linear algebra, that comes later, I'm talking high school level mathematics, stuff that I've largely forgotten or didn't "get" first time round. I've seen these "machine learning for hackers!" articles who try to dish out a bit of math…

We are in the same boat. I wish I've had taken my math classes more seriously.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#154
post #8

Heavens - I'd have never guessed titles like '~ Made Easy' were as old as that. I don't know why exactly, it just sounds modern.

1914 is pretty modern.

exactly. this was driven home for me when I read babbit by sinclair lewis [1]. It's all about "keeping up with the jones's" consumerism in America. It's amazing that it was written 95 years ago.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbitt_(novel)

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#156
post #45

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"…

> You say 1.9MB, the Gutenberg page says 1.8MB The PDF is 1892715 bytes = 1.892715 MB. I rounded to two significant digits, giving 1.9 MB. When Gutenberg says 1.8 MB they probably actually mean 1.8 MiB. 1892715 bytes = 1.80503368377685546875 MiB, or 1.8 MiB to two significant digits.

1.81 MiB to be precise.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#157
post #8

Heavens - I'd have never guessed titles like '~ Made Easy' were as old as that. I don't know why exactly, it just sounds modern.

This is the "....for dummies" equivalent of the time.

I guess what I'm saying is, for me, '... made easy' sounds just as of our time as '... for dummies'. I'm in the UK, maybe it's a more recent phenomenon here? (I naïvely imagine cross-atlantic publication was rarer in the early C20?)

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#158
I love how the first page (Ch. 1) tries to show that 'terrifying' calculus symbols have very simple meanings, and so there's no reason to run away.

Less pleased, though not at _all_ surprised, that the book addresses 'fifth form boys', with no mention of girls.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#159
post #59
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Just a side note, off topic: I was that king off person who had a shelf in my house with 300 printed books (and some more stored in boxes in the basement).. it was always a pain when I had to move to a new apartment! After the e-books and pdfs came by we got a lot of flexibility .. now it's easy to have 3000 volumes in the hard disk. You can literally carry a library with you.. I ended up giving away most of them, ap…

Visit a good library. There are really great ones with lovely reading rooms still all over the place. Totally under used and under appreciated imho.

Re: Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]

#160
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mom always told me I'd need better Math grades to become a programmer. Since the 2nd program I ever wrote was a script to do my math homework for me, I laughed at her. Then I failed to pass the first year of CS bachelor. Twice. I am very glad to see this most excellent book here, and will add it to my collection.

How did that happen? The required math courses got in the way?

Also attempting to finish CS BS but I have hit a wall in my late 30s unable to pass pre-calc. I shudder at the daunting levels of Calc that come after to the point that I'm debating switching majors just to "get a degree".
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