Thomas' Calculus, 11th Edition (Thomas Series)

His style is that of the old-school American text book authors who wrote in a clear, concise manner of English, using tangible and visual examples. Those old writers still thought of much of the material as novel, and were appealing to a more agrarian society of students.. especially the young and booming field of engineers. This is lacking in today's texts. The only drawback is that some old texts are much too impersonal and use the passive voice for everything, which can make them very difficult to read at times.

Thomas' recent editions (at least - i can not recall for the 60's era editions) are not only formally clear, but easy to understand and read. Here are the ways in which Thomas' book beats Stewart's book:
1) His explanations are accompanied by better graphics. Thomas uses more graphics to show each example and derivation. He uses MULTIPLE frames of graphics for one example, instead of just a single graphic. This makes following his train of thought much easier.. it's almost like watching a video.
2) His writing style is more complete. He leaves out fewer ideas than Stewart. Sometimes Stewart, like most authors, forgets to mention what exactly he is thinking and the reader is left trying to figure out his train of thought.
3) Thomas guides the reader through more (graphical) derivation of concepts. Sometimes, you will find derivations which Stewart relegates to problems for the reader (don't you hate that!?), are actually shown visually by Thomas!

Thomas' book is in fact probably the best calculus textbook around. I've looked at many many of them, and fraknly, none of them are this complete and well developed... The funny thing is, Thomas' book was one of the best decades ago. It has only gotten more exhaustive and more mature!

You should have this book in your reference library at least. You are more likely to find illustrative discussion on any particular introductory calculus subject in this book than you are in other books.


One of the better university mathematics textbooks   April 11, 2005
James (Australia)
32 out of 39 found this review helpful

This textbook is by far one of those actually worth buying. I struggled through that awful, miserable excuse for a calculus text by Edwards and Penney, and was a little more impressed with Stewart and Anton. But I pulled out of my calculus courses and decided to get a bit more preparation in before taking them again.

I started out with Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson and Martin Gardner, then went back to by old high school texts and made sure I understood everything. You don't need those huge, expensive Elementary and Intermediate Algebra texts; you can get away with Introductory Mathematics by Petocz, Petocz and Wood, published by Nelson/Thomson Learning (http://www.nelson.com.au). What you need to understand calculus is a good intuitive feel for algebra and to know *why*, not just *how*. There's a big difference.

Once you've spent a couple of months sweating over your algebra, geometry and trigonometry texts, it's then time to reap the rewards and learn calculus.

Thomas and Finney's Calculus and Analytic Geometry is extremely well written, with the right balance between applied mathematics for scientists and engineers and pure mathematics (proofs and stuff like that). If you're a math major, or intending to become a math major, then you'll want to use this book along with Apostol's Calculus and Spivak's Calculus.

One thing I learned the hard way was that putting off mathematics has the effect of slamming the doors in your face. Interesting and useful university courses are out of reach, career options are out of reach, and you're left in the dark when it comes to science and technology. The good news is that with a bit of hard work it will all suddenly fall in place. Mathematics is the foundation of all science and technology, and, of course, the foundation of the exciting new mathematics which will be the basis of technology 30 years from now! Do yourself a favour and pick up Thomas and Finney's Calculus and Analytic Geometry.

If you've ever struggled with awful calculus texts, you'll be pleasantly surprised by this one. (Remember, make sure you've got your high school algebra under your thumb).


A better book for Calculus   March 6, 2005
Dylan Shell (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

I've been rather impressed with this book. Rather than just focusing on how to go about the processes of the calculus (i.e., how to differentiate, to integrate, etc...) this book takes good time to explain why and how various things work the way they do.

Every elementary Calculus book must sweep some things under the rug; the alternative is to cover very few results and sacrifice breadth. This book strikes a good balance between breadth and depth.

In particular I found the sections on multivariate calculus illuminatory.


The Best Calculus Book Ever   September 7, 2002
Redbone (Miami, FL)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

This book is the best calculus book I ever had in my possession. It is very detailed and it also gives you lots of examples. There are also a lot of problems that you can work on for practice followed by the odd answers at the back of the book. This book can take you from calculus I & II to Multivariable Calculus. I think that this book should be recommended to anyone taking calculus in college.


Calculus is at last interesting!   October 28, 2000
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

Rather than just formulas and theory, this book captures my interest even as a non-mathematical type. Well written, beautiful examples and an easy format makes the book a pleasure to own. It is obvious the authors work well together and care about education of a student and not just theorizing.