Teaching myself calculus

[TigerMandingo]

^ Storm, thanks. I've heard good things about the Spivak text. Do you think it's doable for someone with no calc experience?

 

[storm]

^ Storm, thanks. I've heard good things about the Spivak text. Do you think it's doable for someone with no calc experience?

Absolutely. It starts with solving equations for x.

I looked at it briefly just now. While the mathematical rigor will give you some trouble if you are not used to it, it is balanced. For example: when it defines a continuous function it writes a paragraph on the intuition behind it , the motivation for making such a definition, and has some drawings to illustrate the point.

 

[Icarus]

MIT's Gilbert Strang also taught Calculus and the lecture videos are available online, courtesy of MIT OCW:

Highlights of Calculus

by MIT OpenCourseWare
18 videos
121,128 views
Last updated on Jul 1, 2014

Highlights of Calculus is a series of short videos that introduces the basic ideas of calculus — how it works and why it is important. The intended audience is high school students, college students, or anyone who might need help understanding the subject.

In addition to the videos, there are summary slides and practice problems complete with an audio narration by Professor Strang. You can find these resources to the right of each video

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE9407EA64E2C318

 

[ElFlaco]

^ Does anyone have a recommendation to an introductory text on calculus? Preferably an easy read but also rigorous. I've heard good things about the Spivak text. Do you think it's doable for someone with no calc experience?

No. Spivak would be good for someone who already has 'mathematical maturity'. If I'm not mistaken, MIT no longer uses this text for its accelerated course (for the brightest freshman math students in the US). It was deemed too abstract for a first course. The focus in Spivak is putting everything on a solid footing, much in the same way that a foundations course in Real Analysis would do.

For self-study, a better place to start might be How To Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide, by Colin Adams. The approach is breezier, theoretical details are skipped, but no outright lies are told. It's a good place to develop intuition, which is ideally what a first course should be doing. Then, if you're still interested, you can tackle a text with more rigor. At that point, you'll better appreciate the motivations for all the i-dotting and t-crossing.

 

[britchard]

Buying school books for calculus is good, because it's really simplified and has lots of good questions which progress you through the chapters.

 

[XPQ22]

I studied mathematics in college and have the good fortune to have a job where I get to use such tools on a daily basis. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me!

This site is a great resource for learning: http://math.stackexchange.com/

Like anything else, the only way to become good is to actually do the exercises, over and over again until you recognize the patterns.

Mathematics is not a spectator sport.