1 comments about Learning by Discovery: A Lab Manual for Calculus (Classroom Resource Materials).

1. This book contains several labs that use the discovery approach to learning calculus. I personally would rather my students learn calculus this way and this is the perfect resource for that. Since purchasing this book about a month ago, we have already used two of the labs. This book will not collect dust!

1 comments about Calculus: Ideas and Applications.

1. Need I say more? I got exactly what I ordered, in a timely fashion

5 comments about Numerical Mathematics and Computing.

1. I had to use this book for an undergraduate Numerical Analysis class. I'm a Computer Science major with a math minor and this is my last semester. I found this book to be horrible when coupled with an instructor that is equally as horrible. The explainations are too short and lack examples, the problems in each chapter are hard to solve based on the chapter's explaination; they seem to deviate far beyond what was explained in the corresponding chapter. There are some formulas and theorem's mentioned that have no examples to show how they work.

   The book is not totally at fault in my case. I also have a horrible instructor and have to rely soley on this book to learn the material. This book just makes it very, very hard to teach myself. My only praise of the book is it's pseudocode for implementing the methods explained. They can easily be used to program them in C++ or other languages.

   Overall the book is very confusing but it is still far better than my instructor who doesn't explain anything or answer questions.




2. The true test of a textbook's value is whether it can be used to learn the material without the benefit of a thorough and clear lecturer. Considering a textbook's value when supplemented with a good professor isn't proper, because the professor can fill in the book's gaps, making it harder to tell whether the book is good or not.
   
   "Numerical Mathematics and Computing" fails miserably at this test of value. The explanations are very short and feel incomplete, leaving students unsure of how to find the correct answers. The examples which are given to clarify the material are few and far between, and good examples are practically non-exsistant. In general, they skip right over the finer details of how to work through problems, and assume the reader understands what's going on. This might work if the student had already been introduced to the material, or if they had a good professor to fill in the gaps, but that shouldn't be assumed. It certainly seems like it was when this book was written.
   
   I would absolutely discourage anyone from getting this book!



3. After two weeks They didn't have a stock of quality so they gave me a discount for any other book and a full refund



4. I was a teaching assistant for an introductory numerical mathematics course which used this text. It's a satisfactory text (nothing special) if you already have a basis in numerical analysis, however students which have no foundation struggle severely.
   
   The problem stems from the fact that the authors, Kincaid and Cheney, first wrote a graduate level numerical analysis text and then they created this text based on the content from the first book. Needless to say, this "introductory" text makes several [invalid] assumptions about the introductory student's abilities.
   
   It's frustrating to see students struggle because numerical analysis is really not that difficult -- but they have to be taught the procedures clearly. This text does not have enough example problems and the ones they included do not describe the steps thoroughly or the logic behind performing them. The text does include a large quantity of homework problems, but the selected answers in the back of the book provide only answers and no explanation of how the answer was arrived at.
   
   Anyways, if you're still going to buy this book its probably becausre you're a student. Hang in there. It's really not that hard but seek help from other textbooks if needed.



5. In my opinion, this is the best numerical analysis textbook.
   Rather than trying to teach and explain everything to the student in detail, it complements the instructor. The idea is that the students learn in class, and use the text book as a reference, and for homeworks. This is a great idea. Unfortunately pretty much all Calculus books try to teach Calculus, but for a regular student, math is very hard to learn from a text-book... A nice instructor, and a clean presentation is a must. I teach the material I see important, the way it makes sense to me. What I need is a book that complements me, not replaces me.

5 comments about Introduction to Vector Analysis.

1. This book provides a great reference for people studying the physical sciences. I'm a Ph.D. student in Physical Chemistry and have been using it extensively to help out with some other courses. It might not be as good for someone with a more puritanical or abstract interest, e.g. a mathematician, but it's great for anyone that needs a handy reference that explains the rudiments of vector analysis.



2. This book was used in my vector calculus class at UCSD. I think if I was in one of my upper division engineering classes it would be great to use as a reference to help me figure out problems. However, as a math book alone, this was not too helpful. Many of the explanations lack clarity and are from a mathmatician's point of view (in other words, very difficult for lower division students who are not math majors to understand). Also, a lot of the problems are practically impossible. The only reason I did alright in this class was because I had a great teacher. I would recommend this book for people who are in science or engineering classes and need a superficial introduction to vector calculus, but NOT for math classes that go into deep analysis of vectors.



3. I have the third edition and the latest edition of this book. In my opinion, the later editions have been dumbed down considerably. In addition to developing the basics of vector analysis, the older editions included splendid discussions of curvilinear coordinates, tensor analysis and touched on differential forms (the wedge product being introduced). While the latest edition features appendices covering specific applications such as Maxwells and Navier-Stokes equations, the explanations are far too brief to be of much use. I suggest that interested parties attempt to get used older editions whose content were presumably under the control of Davis (not Snider) being much better written and probably less expensive. The older edition had few typos with very useful and entertaining problem sets. A better alternative book might be "Vectors and Tensors in Engineering and Physics" by Donald A. Danielson in paperback.



4. This text presents each subject in a very clear manner. Every subject is developed in concise proofs that are easy to remember and satisfying to those who require mathematical proofs to understand the derivation of the subjects but are not interested in long-winded theory. After each section's quick and dirty derivation, the authors provide a small yet effective selection of challenging questions to be able to gain confidence in the subject. The style of the book is also refreshing in this age of heavy books with flashy photos and wasted space. This book includes 408 pages full of useful mathematics and vector diagrams but nothing else; the book is very light and small. This is a classic.



5. Even though the latest editions have been dumbed down considerably by Snider, what remains of Harry F. Davis are still far better than the similar book by Marsden and Tromba.
   
   For example the introduction uses the word roughly, which is an important qualification. When i read parts of Gibbs original book (available free on-line), Elements of Vector Analysis, i see that he left some wiggle room in his definition. I don't think this was unintentional. For it makes Gibb's text quite adequate even for today's scientists and engineers. Gibbs probably anticipated others working on a more exact definition than his work provided (though not by Procustean means and methods as is common today).
   
   Anyway on page 1, here's Davis-Snyder defition:
   
   "Roughly speaking a vector is a quantity that has direction as well as magnitude."

2 comments about Advanced Calculus (Harpercollins College Outline Series).

1. This book is useful from the standpoint that it offers a quick summary of the most imorportant topics in advanced calculus. It reviews elementary calculus from an advanced viewpoint and then covers topics in advanced calculus. The scope is good and enables one to get a feel for most of the topics covered in advanced calculus in a short time. Having said that the examples are riddled with errors. I counted 17 on one page alone. The number of errors in the examples is astounding. I failed to find many solutions without several errors. This threw me at first as i was learning the subject and later as i understood the concepts better became a challenge and way to sharpen my skills as i found the many errors in the problems. This book is not a complete description of the subject and other books on advanced calculus should also be read to get more details on the various subjects covered. It looks like it was thrown together very quickly and I wonder if the errors were by the author or by who transcribed the text. Either way the author should have reviewed it before signing his name to it.



2. Until I read the other review I thought I must be imagining things,
   but I caught several textual errors without doing all the problems.
   The definitions are right, but sometimes the solved examples
   really aren't done right?
   For advanced calculus the text also left out the Hessian and other
   higher order operators that are used in most advanced texts today.
   It has a lot of useful material, but leaves out most
   of Fourier analysis and differential equations,too.
   As expensive and old as this book is:
   Calculus, Vol. 2: Multi-Variable Calculus and Linear Algebra with Applications; this text is a better alternative for
   learning the material.
   Another older solutions book is Calculus-Differential and Integral With Problems a, which covers some of the same material
   on multiple integration. As a reference this text is useful.

No comments about Real Variables (Essentials).

No comments about Function Theory in the Unit Ball of Cn (Classics in Mathematics).

1 comments about Models for Discrete Longitudinal Data (Springer Series in Statistics).

1. These authors have teamed up to publish two excellent books on the application of linear mixed models for longitudinal data analysis that is particularly useful in biostatistics and clinical trials. The applications often involve missing data and these techniques are particularly well-suited for handling missing data. But often discrete data represents the key endpoints for a clinical trial and those books deal with continuous variables.
   
   This is an excellent written and authoritative text on models for discrete longitudinal data.

1 comments about An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Inverse Problems (Applied Mathematical Sciences).

1. I disagree with the negative rating that was given by Colin Fox. In my view the book is a well-written introduction to a lot of mathematical terms used in theoretical works on inverse problems. Although the methods may be outdated a little, the mathematical basis of the methods seems to be very good and the examples are easy to understand. The book is focussed on continuous eigenvalue, potential and scattering problems. For discrete inverse problems it is probably wiser to consider a different book. This book helped me to understand the work of mathematicians such as Colton and Kress better. Since I do not have a very mathematical background, I'm curious what theoretical mathematicians say about it.

2 comments about Student Solutions Manual, Volume 1, to accompany Calculus and Analytic Geometry.

1. McGraw Hill's 'Calculus and Analytic Geometry' is an excellent calc book in itself, and this guide is an excellent resource for any student using that book. It contains solutions for all of the problems in the textbook, step by step in an easy to understand manner. I definitely recommend this book and it deserves 5 stars, but I'm only giving it 4 stars because the price is a bit steep.



2. If you are using the textbook, _Calculus and Analytic Geometry_, it is imperative to get a copy of this solutions manual. The solutions manual comes in handy whenever you run into a difficult problem, and the solutions are very clear and thorough for every problem in the book. This book really helped me in college calculus.