[drewprops]

I think that I'd like to re-learn calculus just for fun, since it wasn't a lot of fun the first time around and it all fell out of my head as soon as the coursework was done. Our Calc professors were fairly shitty at teaching the concepts, instead rattling through proofs while talking to the board in a Ben Stein monotone.

Anyway, do any of you have recommendations for good books on Calc or would you rather just teach it to me in this thread?

[Luca]

Originally Posted by drewprops I think that I'd like to re-learn calculus just for fun

You are insane. If you want to have some fun I'd suggest drinking until you forget all about your little Calculus idea.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by Luca You are insane. If you want to have some fun I'd suggest drinking until you forget all about your little Calculus idea.

I'd make some joke about how much alcohol that would take, with regards to limits and his weight and some other cooked up information. But I don't remember anything from calculus(I didn't even too poorly in the class)

[pscates2.0]

I think that's how he came UP with the little calculus idea...no normal, sober person is going to seek that out.

My knowledge - and interest - in math ends as soon as they started throwing letters (and words) into the mix.

I didn't go to English or composition class and have to work little math equations. Keep that crap separate like it's supposed to be.

[Brad]

I took (and, yes, passed) Calculus I, II, and III at university no more than three years ago, but today I couldn't integrate an expression to save my life. My professors were all monotone sleep-inducers as well.

Strangely enough, this is actually something I'd like to re-learn too.

[Engine Joe]

I dropped calc in high school because I was in danger of failing and the study hall that was during that time period was about to show the SW trilogy (only study hall I ever took). In college, I got an A+ in calculus, and all my profs wanted me to go into math (I split the difference with my business profs' pleading and majored in Economics).

And here I am, about 8 years after my last calc class, and I can't remember a damn thing about how to do calculus.

However, unlike you, I have no interest in digging up that corpse.

[leachboy]

I've seen a few books called something like Calculus the easy way, but if you just want a normal textbook to teach yourself from, then Calculus, Early Transcendentals, by James Stewart, is decent.

On another note, if you're on a budget then you might be able to get a calc book for free at a university. It's not unusual for professors who are cleaning out their offices to put out stacks of free books.

[Banana]

I slept through my calculus classes but managed to get solid Bs in all the class.... All I did was flip open the textbook, looked at the example and the clarity came to me and I integrated equation.

To this day, I still can tell you that the area bound under the curve of function 1/x to the x and y axis will be 2. Except that I've forgotten how to properly integrate a 1/x as power rule don't apply here.

[drewprops]

The best Calc teacher I ever had really was a teacher who had decided to go back to school for a better degree. She was our TA. We'd get to her class and she'd say "Okay, what did he go over?" .... "Okay, here's how you DO it....". That was one classy lady. She even spoke English!

[Banana]

Now...

I want to ask everyone here.

Were all of your calculus teachers awful?

I've had two assholes who would insult the class, mumbles, and goes off on a tangent all times. Hence me sleeping in the class.

My first calculus teacher was actually decent; would give time to help eveyone help the materials, but you had to be a geek; he just can't speak it in normal English.

Last calculus teacher I had, was (!) young, and very intelligent. However, he spoke nothing but mathematics and tough shit if you can't keep up.

Is there a law somewhere that calculus teacher must suck at teaching?

[ironlung]

Call me crazy but I love calculus. I didnt start appreciating calculus until I took PCHEM quantum mechanics. I was able to use calculus for real world problems, making me better appreciate the math. The way they teach calculus in math classes is quite boring.

[billybobsky]

I took through multivariable/diff eq, and I remember most of it (although to be honest since my later years of the calculus track were in physics focused classes, I can't tell you whether a differential equation is analytically solvable and without a table of generally solvable equations I can only guess blindly at a solution.)

Though there is no real point in being able to do most of these later skill sets in the absence of a book because you generally would need one anyway...

[drewprops]

The best calculus professor I ever had was Michael Barnsley, who was very involved in fractal stuff in his research time. Mind you, he didn't make me understand the stuff much better than anyone else, but he was British and entertaining to hear speak.

[Yontsey]

Originally Posted by Banana Now... I want to ask everyone here. Were all of your calculus teachers awful? I've had two assholes who would insult the class, mumbles, and goes off on a tangent all times. Hence me sleeping in the class. My first calculus teacher was actually decent; would give time to help eveyone help the materials, but you had to be a geek; he just can't speak it in normal English. Last calculus teacher I had, was (!) young, and very intelligent. However, he spoke nothing but mathematics and tough shit if you can't keep up. Is there a law somewhere that calculus teacher must suck at teaching?

actually when i took calc at Bowling Green, my teacher was amazing. Best math teacher i ever had. he was from the Philipians but you could understand him. he was a graduate student that was going for his masters but he made everything so easy to understand. I was a complete slacker and i got an A.

[shatteringglass]

I had a great calculus teacher in high school, and I was in a small class, so the learning experience was incredibly personal and rewarding. I got a 3 on the AP Calc exam, which I didn't think was too bad.

College was a completely different experience. Huge lecture halls, shitty professors; it was a nightmare. I actually did worse in calculus in college, and all the calc I learned in high school was "overwritten" by the one-size-fits-all way of learning large college classes are known for.

It all depends on the way it's taught.

I don't remember anything these days.

[Partial]

Originally Posted by Luca You are insane. If you want to have some fun I'd suggest drinking until you forget all about your little Calculus idea.

come on now, I enjoy math for fun. Calc 1 was fun. Calc 2 was not. Calc 3 was pointless. Diff EQ was extremely easy since I do that stuff in EE classes. But come on man, you know calc 1 was usefull and kind of cool.

[Wrao]

Originally Posted by tensdanny38 come on now, I enjoy math for fun. Calc 1 was fun. Calc 2 was not. Calc 3 was pointless. Diff EQ was extremely easy since I do that stuff in EE classes. But come on man, you know calc 1 was usefull and kind of cool.

Wrong. Calculus is never useful, because there are always dorks like you out there doing it for me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they still do the "delta-epsilon" stuff? (My calculus courses were 30 years ago.)

I heard about a recommended text once and downloaded it. I haven't had a need to look at it, but there must have been some reason I thought it might be a good idea to look at it.

If you're interested, do a Google search for "keislercalc.pdf". The title is "Elementary Calculus: An infinitesimal approach" by H. Jerome Keisler, University of Wisconsin.

Unless you're an aspiring math major, I would NOT recommend the text that my first class used: "Calculus", by James Spivak.

[Luca]

Originally Posted by Wrao Wrong. Calculus is never useful, because there are always dorks like you out there doing it for me.

Seconded. I was going to post a reply saying that no, calculus is not a useful skill to have, but Wrao beat me to it. Everyone's either a calc person, or they're not. There's no middle ground. No one occasionally has to use calc to solve any kind of real-world problem. You either do calculus for your job or you forget about it. Hell, even algebra is pretty much like that.

[drewprops]

I guess it's the basic idea behind calculus that I need to first reacquire...

EDIT: found that PDF at this link:
http://valle.fciencias.unam.mx/licen...eislercalc.pdf

[RowdyScot]

I had the same teacher in HS for both geometry and calc. When I had him for geometry for freshman year, I don't think I quite understood exactly what type of effect he was trying to get with his persona. When I had him again for calc, his humor was actually funny, and he turned out to be one of the best teachers I had in HS. I'd been cleared to start straight into Calc 3 in college last year, but due to scheduling I was never able to take it. That'll fall to first semester this year. I just hope I remember enough to get me through. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I have that whole rusty feeling going.

Edit: Yontsey, who did you have, and do you know if he is still teaching? Or do you have any other profs you could recommend?

[Anonymous Coward]

One concept that describes a basic use for calculus is that you can deal with things that do not vary linearly.

For example, you can calculate the area of a triangle using well known formulas because we assume the sides are straight lines. Using calculus, you divide the area into small strips, calculate the area of each strip, and add them all together.

But that's probably not what you're looking for ...

[billybobsky]

That is the best description I have heard...

Calculus is about breaking down equations into parts or building them up from parts.

It allows you to identify the way functions change.

[washington mac user]

RowdyScot have fun doing the Taylor Series! lol thats gonna suck

[RowdyScot]

I've actually done the Taylor Series during HS. If I remember correctly, that was the test that brought me back to the A range. Remembering what I had to do later for extra credit in order to keep the A will give me nightmares for years, however. Try putting your TI through binary calculus.

[JohnnyTheA]

I don't know what your major was but it probably was not Engineering or Physics. In those majors you HAVE to know calc (an diffy-q) just to get by. So you are not likely to forget after having to learn it time and time again in most later classes. In CS, you probably don't need as much Calc though most accredited programs require you to take Calc to some degree... (Linear alegebra is very useful for some fields of CS though).

I would recommend NOT trying to re-learn calculus again (it can be boring) but instead go get a good physics book with lots of real-world calculus examples. These are what is lacking in many Calc classes and the reason IMHO that Math classes can be boring.... Try the Haliday and Resnick (sp?) series of Calc-based physics if you can find the old books on ebay those would be cheap and perfect.. Keep an old Calc book for reference..

JTA

[Dave]

Originally Posted by RowdyScot Try putting your TI through binary calculus.

Sounds like something I would've tried to do in college, then get bored and watch tv.

[AWR]

I never made it to Calculus.

I'm going to quickly re-read the thread to find out if Dp's has explained why he wants to do this again.

[Partial]

Calculus is really useful is you're relatively handy and trying to figure out some stuff quick. I guess off of the top of my head I cannot think of an example, but I found myself applying calc 1 (though maybe unnecessarily, but it was cool at the time!!) to a ton of real-world situations while enrolled in it. Especially physics, circuit modeling, and optimizing measurements

[AWR]

Originally Posted by drewprops I guess it's the basic idea behind calculus that I need to first reacquire... EDIT: found that PDF at this link: http://valle.fciencias.unam.mx/licen...eislercalc.pdf

Now that I've polished this document off, I feel I have a better grasp of the subject.