Product Description

The sequel to How to Ace Calculus, How to Ace the Rest of Calculus provides humorous and highly readable explanations of the key topics of second and third semester calculus—such as sequences and series, polor coordinates, and multivariable calculus—without the technical details and fine print that would be found in a formal text.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208764 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
"What a great book! It's short, it's funny, and it reveals the secrets of the calculus guild. What more could you want?"—Fernando Gouvea, Editor, MAA Online

"Congratulations! You made it through the first term of calculus. Now the fun really begins. This wonderful book will take you on a fantastic journey."—Mikhail Chkhenkeli, Williams College
-- Review

Review

About the Author
Colin Adams is Professor of Mathematics and Mathematics Department Chair at Williams College. He is the author of The Knot Book (W. H. Freeman) and winner of the Mathematical Association of America Distinguished Teaching Award for 1998.

Joel Hass is Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Davis.

Abigail Thompson is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of California at Davis. Both have held fellowships from the Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

Adams, Hass, and Thompson are co-authors of How to Ace Calculus from W.H. Freeman.

Customer Reviews

This book saved my GPA
This book has been more help to me than my Calculus textbook, and has made tricky concepts easy to understand. After getting a 51 & a 57 on my first Calculus II exams, I got desperate and purchased this book, as well as its prequel, "How To Ace Calculus." I read through both books all the way up to where I was in the course and had a revelation, Calculus finally made sense to me! I did extremely well on the next two exams and got the second best grade in the class on the final, ending up with a B in the course. Not too bad after getting a warning from the department in the middle of the semester, and it's all thanks to this book. It is an easy read, with very concise explanations and a dose of humor for good measure.

Great Introduction
This book is very strong (10 out of 10) for Calculus II, namely in the areas of indeterminant forms and improper integrals, polar coordinates, sequences and series, vectors, parametric coordinates, and graphing. It is pretty strong (9/10) in the areas of partial derivatives and integration of many variables. In vector fields, "How to Ace the Rest of Calculus" is sketchy. It covers divergence and curl well, as well as the basics about vector fields. However, the book does not do very well (6/10) in explaining the finer points in vector fields, such as Line and Surface Integrals, Green's Theorem, and Stoke's Theorems, in which more examples would be useful. If a problem arises in line or surface integrals (including Green's and Stoke's Theorems), don't look to this book to clear it up.

I would recommend this book purely as the authors intended, an introduction--nothing more and nothing less.

Calculus in Plain English
This book is not a substitute for a textbook. By itself it seems like the explanations are too simple. This book comes in vary handy when I combine it with my class.
Calculus II gets in to some very abstract concepts, and our instructor presents the material in very abstract terms - what I mean is while I am listening I am thinking that I would really enjoy this class if I was going for my masters in mathematics, but for right now, I am not grasping what is said. Our text explains everything in huge steps leaving wide gaps in the instruction. When I leave class I can turn to this book "How to Ace the Rest of Calculus" to break everything down to my level. I can get hold of the basic meaning and concepts of what is taught, and then I have a foundation to build on.
If you are in Calculus II or III, and you go through the motions doing your homework without really knowing what is going on, this book can help. The book is easy to read, and I find it is best used right after you were taught the material.
I find if I have a good foundation on the material in a way I understand, it is much easier to remember the concepts and apply the formulas. I study hard, but with the help of this book I am not left clueless at test time.