[math-fun] Intro to calculus book for an English major
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random... thanks! /b\ -- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
I've often wondered if it would be easier to learn calculus (at least, derivatives) through combinatorics and generating functions. On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 6:50 PM, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
thanks! /b\
-- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
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-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
Why not start with linear algebra — arguably much more useful and prettier. On Dec 12, 2014, at 9:50 PM, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
thanks! /b\
-- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
On 12/12/2014 6:50 PM, Bernie Cosell wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
thanks! /b\
I don't have any specific recommendation, but I'd look at the customer reviews of "self-teaching calculus" books on amazon.com. Brent Meeker
On 13/12/2014 02:50, Bernie Cosell wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
Not an answer to the question, but the following story may amuse some readers. When I was an undergraduate, one of my friends was an English major, and one day he came to me and asked me to explain integration to him. So I started talking about limits of sums, areas under curves, and all that. "No, no," he said. "That can't be right." Why not? Well, you see, the reason he'd asked me the question was that he had been reading something by Barthes or one of these other highfalutin' French literary theorists, and it made some comment that such-and-such was a matter of "integration, in the mathematical sense". And such-and-such obviously had nothing whatever to do with what I was trying to explain... (Aha, found it. http://eng5010.pbworks.com/f/Barthes.pdf. "[Criticism's] role is solely to elaborate a language whose coherence, logic, in short whose systematics can collect or better still can “integrate” (in the mathematical sense of the word) the greatest possible quantity of Proustian language, exactly as a logical equation tests the validity of reasoning without taking sides as to the “truth” of the arguments it mobilizes." It's too bad they never told me about Proustian language in my introductory analysis courses.) -- g
On 12/13/14, Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> wrote:
... (Aha, found it. http://eng5010.pbworks.com/f/Barthes.pdf. "[Criticism's] role is solely to elaborate a language whose coherence, logic, in short whose systematics can collect or better still can “integrate” (in the mathematical sense of the word) the greatest possible quantity of Proustian language, exactly as a logical equation tests the validity of reasoning without taking sides as to the “truth” of the arguments it mobilizes." It's too bad they never told me about Proustian language in my introductory analysis courses.)
Of course, it may have lost something in translation ... WFL
Why does your friend want to learn mathematics? If he wants to learn physics, or engineering, calculus is something he needs to learn. But if he wants to learn mathematics for its own sake, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, I would consider learning abstract algebra, starting with group theory, rather than calculus. Andy On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
thanks! /b\
-- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
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-- Andy.Latto@pobox.com
The book that I wish had been used for my math course is the book by Bamberg and Sternberg, An Introduction to Mathematics for Students of Physics, Cambridge University Press. It teaches several branches of math at the same time, and does calculus with differential forms, obviating the need to unlearn a set of bad ideas when you take the next steps. On Dec 13, 2014, at 11:22 AM, Andy Latto <andy.latto@pobox.com> wrote:
Why does your friend want to learn mathematics? If he wants to learn physics, or engineering, calculus is something he needs to learn. But if he wants to learn mathematics for its own sake, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, I would consider learning abstract algebra, starting with group theory, rather than calculus.
Andy
On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
thanks! /b\
-- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
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-- Andy.Latto@pobox.com
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On 13 Dec 2014 at 11:22, Andy Latto wrote:
Why does your friend want to learn mathematics? If he wants to learn physics, or engineering, calculus is something he needs to learn. But if he wants to learn mathematics for its own sake, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, I would consider learning abstract algebra, starting with group theory, rather than calculus.
I think you're onto something -- calculus came up because of something we were discussing... But the fact is that to first order *ALL* of mathematics is beautiful if presented properly, and I realize that I if I succeeded in teaching some calculus, my friend would have learned exactly nothing useful. But your suggestion got me thinking: instead of calculus I'll propose probability and statistics. Both can be a lot of fun and useful in everyday life [especially if you *understand* them]... and no need to teach derivations but knowing some about the distributions [without the ugly equations behind them] or what a "t-test" is and what it tells you can be something good to know. I'll try that tack. THANKS!! /Bernie\ ps, on the subject of Calculus, in poking around I found that Martin Gardner wrote a book "Calculus Made Easy" -- how can anything by MG not be good... /b\ -- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
I suggest that your friend go the public library and browse the mathematics section for something interesting. -- Gene From: Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2014 5:21 PM Subject: Re: [math-fun] Intro to calculus book for an English major On 13 Dec 2014 at 11:22, Andy Latto wrote:
Why does your friend want to learn mathematics? If he wants to learn physics, or engineering, calculus is something he needs to learn. But if he wants to learn mathematics for its own sake, to appreciate the beauty of mathematics, I would consider learning abstract algebra, starting with group theory, rather than calculus.
I think you're onto something -- calculus came up because of something we were discussing... But the fact is that to first order *ALL* of mathematics is beautiful if presented properly, and I realize that I if I succeeded in teaching some calculus, my friend would have learned exactly nothing useful. But your suggestion got me thinking: instead of calculus I'll propose probability and statistics. Both can be a lot of fun and useful in everyday life [especially if you *understand* them]... and no need to teach derivations but knowing some about the distributions [without the ugly equations behind them] or what a "t-test" is and what it tells you can be something good to know. I'll try that tack. THANKS!! /Bernie\ ps, on the subject of Calculus, in poking around I found that Martin Gardner wrote a book "Calculus Made Easy" -- how can anything by MG not be good... /b\ -- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
On Saturday, December 13, 2014, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote: ps, on the subject of Calculus, in poking around I found that Martin
Gardner wrote a book "Calculus Made Easy" -- how can anything by MG not be good... /b\
Gardner himself didn't write the book; IIRC it's a reissue of the book of the same name by Sylvanus P. Thompson. But anyone who enjoys Gardener's writing is likely to enjoy Thompson's book. Jim Propp
FYI I misspelled Gardner in the last sentence of my post. Jim Propp On Saturday, December 13, 2014, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','jamespropp@gmail.com');>> wrote:
On Saturday, December 13, 2014, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
ps, on the subject of Calculus, in poking around I found that Martin
Gardner wrote a book "Calculus Made Easy" -- how can anything by MG not be good... /b\
Gardner himself didn't write the book; IIRC it's a reissue of the book of the same name by Sylvanus P. Thompson. But anyone who enjoys Gardener's writing is likely to enjoy Thompson's book.
Jim Propp
On 14/12/2014 01:21, Bernie Cosell wrote:
I think you're onto something -- calculus came up because of something we were discussing... But the fact is that to first order *ALL* of mathematics is beautiful if presented properly, and I realize that I if I succeeded in teaching some calculus, my friend would have learned exactly nothing useful. But your suggestion got me thinking: instead of calculus I'll propose probability and statistics. Both can be a lot of fun and useful in everyday life [especially if you *understand* them]... and no need to teach derivations but knowing some about the distributions [without the ugly equations behind them] or what a "t-test" is and what it tells you can be something good to know. I'll try that tack.
Another option: Find a fairly broad-ranging recreational mathematics book, give it to your friend, and ask what s/he finds most interesting in it. If the answer is "nothing", you can probably give up. Otherwise, it may suggest a direction to go in. -- g
Another option would be to recommend the recent popular math books by mathematicians Steve Strogatz ("The Joy of x") and Jordan Ellenberg ("How Not To Be Wrong"). Jim Propp On Sunday, December 14, 2014, Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> wrote:
On 14/12/2014 01:21, Bernie Cosell wrote:
I think you're onto something -- calculus came up because of something we
were discussing... But the fact is that to first order *ALL* of mathematics is beautiful if presented properly, and I realize that I if I succeeded in teaching some calculus, my friend would have learned exactly nothing useful. But your suggestion got me thinking: instead of calculus I'll propose probability and statistics. Both can be a lot of fun and useful in everyday life [especially if you *understand* them]... and no need to teach derivations but knowing some about the distributions [without the ugly equations behind them] or what a "t-test" is and what it tells you can be something good to know. I'll try that tack.
Another option: Find a fairly broad-ranging recreational mathematics book, give it to your friend, and ask what s/he finds most interesting in it. If the answer is "nothing", you can probably give up. Otherwise, it may suggest a direction to go in.
-- g
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As I recall the little book "Calculus Lite" by Frank Morgan <http://books.google.com/books/about/Calculus_Lite.html?id=F2ngpuWXORYC> would be good for such purposes. On Fri, Dec 12, 2014 at 9:50 PM, Bernie Cosell <bernie@fantasyfarm.com> wrote:
A very smart friend has the misfortune of being an English major and so avoided essentially all math courses in college [many many years ago]. Any recommendations on a good "intro" book [I'd be helping as mentor/tutor]. A check on Amazon uncovers dozens of "Calculus made easy" and such books... I suppose I could just pick one at random...
thanks! /b\
-- Bernie Cosell Fantasy Farm Fibers mailto:bernie@fantasyfarm.com Pearisburg, VA --> Too many people, too few sheep <--
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Can it just be a coincidence that today is 12/13/14 ??? --Dan
Three days ago, here in Mexico, it was 10/12/14. On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net> wrote:
Can it just be a coincidence that today is 12/13/14 ???
--Dan
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participants (13)
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Andy Latto -
Bernie Cosell -
Dan Asimov -
Eugene Salamin -
Fred Lunnon -
Gareth McCaughan -
James Buddenhagen -
James Propp -
meekerdb -
Mike Stay -
Tom Knight -
W. Edwin Clark -
Whitfield Diffie