To Students: How to Learn from this Book
• This book may be different from other math textbooks that you have used, so it may be helpful to know about some of the differences in advance. This book emphasizes at every stage the meaning (in practical, graphical or numerical terms) of the symbols you are using. There is much less emphasis on “plug-and-chug” and using formulas, and much more emphasis on the interpretation of these formulas than you may expect. You will often be asked to explain your ideas in words or to explain an answer using graphs.
• The book contains the main ideas of calculus in plain English. Your success in using this book will depend on your reading, questioning, and thinking hard about the ideas presented. Although you may not have done this with other books, you should plan on reading the text in detail, not just the worked examples.
• There are very few examples in the text that are exactly like the homework problems. This means that you can't just look at a homework problem and search for a similar-looking “worked out” example. Success with the homework will come by grappling with the ideas of calculus.
• Many of the problems that we have included in the book are open-ended. This means that there may be more than one approach and more than one solution, depending on your analysis. Many times, solving a problem relies on common-sense ideas that are not stated in the problem but which you will know from everyday life.
• Some problems in this book assume that you have access to a graphing calculator or computer. There are many situations where you may not be able to find an exact solution to a problem, but you can use a calculator or computer to get a reasonable approximation.
• This book attempts to give equal weight to four methods for describing functions: graphical (a picture), numerical (a table of values), algebraic (a formula), and verbal. Sometimes you may find it easier to translate a problem given in one form into another. The best idea is to be flexible about your approach: if one way of looking at a problem doesn't work, try another.
• Students using this book have found discussing these problems in small groups very helpful. There are a great many problems which are not cut-and-dried; it can help to attack them with the other perspectives your colleagues can provide. If group work is not feasible, see if your instructor can organize a discussion session in which additional problems can be worked on.
• You are probably wondering what you'll get from the book. The answer is, if you put in a solid effort, you will get a real understanding of one of the most important accomplishments of the last millennium—calculus—as well as a real sense of the power of mathematics in the age of technology.