Product Description: Smith/Minton: Mathematically Precise. Student-Friendly. Superior Technology. Students who have used Smith/Minton's Calculus say it was easier to read than any other math book they've used. That testimony underscores the success of the authors’ approach, which combines the best elements of reform with the most reliable aspects of mainstream calculus teaching, resulting in a motivating, challenging book. Smith/Minton also provide exceptional, reality-based applications that appeal to students’ interests and demonstrate the elegance of math in the world around us. New features include: • A new organization placing all transcendental functions early in the book and consolidating the introduction to L'Hôpital's Rule in a single section. • More concisely written explanations in every chapter. • Many new exercises (for a total of 7,000 throughout the book) that require additional rigor not found in the 2nd Edition. • New exploratory exercises in every section that challenge students to synthesize key concepts to solve intriguing projects. • New commentaries (“Beyond Formulas”) that encourage students to think mathematically beyond the procedures they learn. • New counterpoints to the historical notes, “Today in Mathematics,” that stress the contemporary dynamism of mathematical research and applications, connecting past contributions to the present. • An enhanced discussion of differential equations and additional applications of vector calculus.
Not enough rigor for my tastes As a math instructor at a small college, I am occasionally called upon to teach calculus. Therefore, I examined this book for possible consideration as a textbook in our three-course sequence. At over 1000 pages, it certainly has all the material needed for the three-course sequence we offer at Mount Mercy. The first chapter (number 0) of 72 pages consists of a review of precalculus topics. I consider this to be about right in terms of the amount of review material that should be included. However, if I were teaching the class, I would spend around a week on this material. In my opinion there is a reason for prerequisites and the most important one is so that you can cover the material of the current course, not review what should have already been done. Chapter number 1 is an introduction to limits, but the approach is intuitive rather than formal. In my opinion, there is not enough of the traditional epsilon-delta approach to the structure of limits. The remainder of the book is largely more of this "intuitive" notion of calculus. Theorems are stated but rarely proven, most of the time there is a statement of the new technique followed by a series of worked examples. While this approach works well, there are times when there is just no substitute for the complete proof of a theorem when it comes to understanding exactly what the technique really is. Therefore, if your approach to calculus is to have the students engage in "plug and chug" exercises, then this book would be an excellent selection for a textbook. However, if you are like me and feel the need to inject some occasional rigor, you will either have to provide it yourself or use another book.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
