Review of “Calculus for Dummies”
Published by " Plain – English explanations and step-by-step guidance." Really? Well actually yes. This book gives a really nice and simple explanation (in human language) covering all the important aspects of this subject. So this is my shor review of this useful book.
Like all of the “For Dummies” books, this one is also written in a very smart and handy style. Even the very first page of the book contains handy and useful information – tables with equations of geometry and trig functions. Furthermore, throughout any chapter of the book, useful tips, warnings (yeah maths can be dangerous), critical concepts and rules are clearly marked with little icons, which are very useful. Funny illustrationsand tiny comics at the start of the chapters are also a nice way to make your journey through the land of maths a little easier. So, in conclusion, the layout is very nice, interesting, handy and especially useful for students, who are revising the subject.
Cover of Calculus for Dummies
Now a few words about the author. The author, Mark Ryan, has been teaching maths since 1989. He runs the Math Center in Winnetka, Illinois. His natural talent in maths was clearly shown, when he scored 800 (perfect score) on the maths part of the SAT. However, his real talent is explaining maths in plain English. This talent is truly obvious throughout the book, where hard to grasp subjects are explained in plain English with a help of helpful graphs and illustrations.
The book is organized neatly into a couple of parts regarding the most important subjects of calculus – differentiation and integration. In addition, there are a couple of other important subjects like limits, finding areas of various geometrical figures and revision in algebra and trig functions. However, it would be very useful if the book had more problems, with explained and detail answers. Nevertheless, it’s still a great book to revise and deeply cover the subject of calculus.
All in all, I had fun reading this book and revising calculus, which is a major part of maths in both late high school and college. Furthermore, the book helped me to understand this subject more deeply. Thus it’s a great book with a couple of minor drawbacks. So if you’re looking for a great book to revise or learn calculus, look no more.
Score: 8/10
Similar books: “Physics for Dummies”, “Chemistry for Dummies”, “Maths for Dummies”.
Liked it
On December 9, 2010 at 5:06 pm
I think students should use this book.
On December 10, 2010 at 4:02 pm
good