Bruce Von Stiers

W. Michael Kelley has written a book for those people who need to study calculus and haven’t a clue about it. The book is done in a manner that makes this mathematical area easier to understand. The title of the book is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Calculus. It was published by Alpha Books.

The book is softcover and has 319 pages. This includes a 4 page Introduction and a 7 page Index. There is also a Glossary of those mathematical terms that you might not readily understand. One of the really interesting things to start out the book with is the Foreword. It was written by Danica McKellar. She is the actress who played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years. It seems that she ended up being a Mathematics Major at UCLA and has some encouraging things to say about beginning the study of calculus.

The book has five parts and 24 chapters. The parts are The Roots of Calculus, Laying the Foundation for Calculus, The Derivative, The Integral and Differential Equations, Sequences and Series. There is an also an Appendix that covers answers to the equations posed in the text.

The first chapter is What is Calculus, Anyway? It takes through what Calculus does and how it can be applied to things in life. This chapter also goes into the history of Calculus, throwing out names like Newton, Zeno and Leibniz. Who? If you’re not a history buff, no need to worry. There isn’t a quiz on this.

Next we move on to working on your basic algebra skills. These are important in learning calculus. The second chapter has you brushing up on linear equations and factoring polynomials. Then the book shoves you into a chapter on mathematical functions. You will learn how to construct an Inverse Function. Oh, goodie. And if that isn’t enough, Chapter 4 takes you on a quick tour of Trigonometry.

The second part of the book takes you through some more components of Calculus. You will learn what a limit is and when it does and does not exist. You will learn how to evaluate those limits and search for continuity. There is a segment on what a secant line is compared to a tangent line. One skims the edge of a curve and the other “hacks crudely through a curve”.

The chapters in the third part show you all about derivatives. These are pieces of a mathematical equation and not byproducts of a natural resource. There are some rules and techniques to learn in this section, along with a couple of theorems.

In Part 4 there are chapters on integrating fractions such as the Brute Force Method. Learn the Disc and Washer methods of integration. And Part 5 wraps up everything with Sequences and series, differential equations and series convergence tests.

This book will not give you everything that is needed to test out of a Calculus class. It wasn’t meant to be that way. It is, however, a good book to help people begin to understand this intense and hard to learn mathematical “numeric nightmare.” After reading this book, you should have a better grasp on what Calculus is and how to perform some of the problems from a calculus class.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Calculus is available at major book retailers. If you can’t find a copy, it can be ordered online from Alpha Books at www.idiotsguides.com. The list price is $ 18.95 U.S.