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Illustrated Calculus Textbook

math.upenn.edu

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Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#11

Post by CrazedGeek »

DTE wrote: post #10

The idea of presenting calculus visually is certainly a good one, but this is useless for anyone other than the author. The point of illustrations is to enhance the material and this is just plain unreadable. Here is an interesting project that is far more successful at math illustration and shows some promise: http://worrydream.com/KillMath/

I don't know, the anthropomorphic lemon saying "easy peasy" enhanced it greatly for me.

(Seriously, there's a certain great charm to these sorts of things that make them strangely appealing to certain people, like me. It might not be great for learning, but it's awesome as entertainment.)

Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#13

Post by miked »

toot wrote: post #8

I imagine something like this would would have happened if the unabomber was really into maths. I love the idea of this book and its humour, but it is quite hard to comprehend. I can actually see maths' popularity increasing as people begin to see it as a useful hobby, especially those who are learning programming. I would willing to pay for lessons if learning maths didn't have to involve a dense textbook, but inste…

I imagine something like this would would have happened if the unabomber was really into maths.

"In late 1967, Kaczynski became an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught undergraduate courses in geometry and calculus. He was also noted as the youngest professor ever hired by the university. This position proved short-lived, as Kaczynski received numerous complaints and low ratings from the undergraduates he taught. Many students noted that he seemed quite uncomfortable in a teaching environment, often stuttering and mumbling during lectures, becoming excessively nervous in front of a class, and ignoring students during designated office hours. Without explanation, he resigned from his position in 1969, at age 26. The chairman of the mathematics department, J. W. Addison, called this a "sudden and unexpected" resignation,[18] while vice chairman Calvin Moore said that given Kaczynski's "impressive" thesis and record of publications, "He could have advanced up the ranks and been a senior member of the faculty today."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#15

Post by kunjaan »

This may work with narration but the text in itself ,at least for me, is completely useless.

I think other attempts from "Manga Guide" series and even the "Transnational College of LEX" series are far more effective than this one.

Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#16

Post by capnrefsmmat »

CrazedGeek wrote: post #11
DTE wrote: post #10

The idea of presenting calculus visually is certainly a good one, but this is useless for anyone other than the author. The point of illustrations is to enhance the material and this is just plain unreadable. Here is an interesting project that is far more successful at math illustration and shows some promise: http://worrydream.com/KillMath/

I don't know, the anthropomorphic lemon saying "easy peasy" enhanced it greatly for me. (Seriously, there's a certain great charm to these sorts of things that make them strangely appealing to certain people, like me. It might not be great for learning, but it's awesome as entertainment.)

It's certainly fun to look at, but I'd have a hard time following any of the mathematics.

What I'd like to see is an online calculus book which takes advantage of interactive animations and graphing to demonstrate how things like integrals and derivatives work. For example, for the limit-based definition of derivatives, you could concoct an animation showing how the math works as deltaX goes to 0, and so on.

There's also clever ways of demonstrating the product rule through geometry that make the math make so much more sense. There's a lot of potential in interactive, graphical textbooks that has yet to be explored, I think.

Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#17

Post by blaaah »

I'm taking Calculus 2 next semester and I was hoping this would be a good source to study from. I appreciate the fact that the information is condensed to exactly what a person needs to know to solve the problem, but the text is unreadable. This is wasted potential...

Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#18

Post by [deleted] »

capnrefsmmat wrote: post #16
CrazedGeek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, the anthropomorphic lemon saying "easy peasy" enhanced it greatly for me. (Seriously, there's a certain great charm to these sorts of things that make them strangely appealing to certain people, like me. It might not be great for learning, but it's awesome as entertainment.)

It's certainly fun to look at, but I'd have a hard time following any of the mathematics. What I'd like to see is an online calculus book which takes advantage of interactive animations and graphing to demonstrate how things like integrals and derivatives work. For example, for the limit-based definition of derivatives, you could concoct an animation showing how the math works as deltaX goes to 0, and so on. There's…

[deleted]

Re: Illustrated Calculus Textbook

#20

Post by cmansley »

Ghrist is a brilliant guy. He does his presentations at conferences in exactly the same style and it is brilliant. He has a framework of notes that he scrolls through, but as he is speaking he will fill in parts of overall picture with sketches. He is one of the few speakers that can make technical topics both interesting and intuitive.
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