Name: Calculus for the practical man
ISBN: 9781443728836

Calculus for the practical man

CALCULUS For the Practical Man by J. E. THOMPSON. Originally published in 1931. PREFACE: THIS book on simplified calculus is one of a series designed by the author and publisher for the reader with an interest in the meaning and simpler technique of mathematical science, and for those who wish to obtain a practical mastery of some of the more usual and directly useful branches of the science without the aid of a teacher. Like the other books in the series it is the outgrowth of the author's experience with students such as those mentioned and the demand experienced by the publisher for books which may be read as well as studied. One of the outstanding features of the book is the use of the method of rates instead of the method of limits. To the conven tional teacher of mathematics, whose students work for a college degree and look toward the modern theory of functions, the author hastens to say that for their purposes the limit method is the only method which can profitably be used. To the readers contem plated in the preparation of this book, however, the notion of a limit and any method of calculation based upon it always seem artificial and not hi any way connected with the familiar ideas of numbers, algebraic symbolism or natural phenomena.

What Hacker News says

photon_linesMay 2022

Great introductory books along with videos:

  - Mathematics and Its History (John Stillwell)
  - Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics (William Dunham)
  - Proofs Without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking (Roger B. Nelsen)
  - The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities (William Dunham)
  - Odds & Ends: Introducing Probability & Decision with a Visual Emphasis (Jonathan Weisberg)
  - Introduction to Probability (Joseph K. Blitzstein, Jessica Hwang)
  - The Secret Life of Equations: The 50 Greatest Equations and How They Work (Richard Cochrane)
  - Euler's Gem: The Polyhedron Formula and the Birth of Topology (David S. Richeson)
  - 3Blue1Brown Essence of Linear Algebra: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab 
  - 3Blue1Brown Differential Equations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDNPOjrT6KVlfJuKtYTftqH6 
  - Dynamics: The Geometry of Behavior (Ralph Abraham, Christopher Shaw)
  - Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (Rudolf Rucker)
  - 3Blue1Brown Essence of Calculus: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDMsr9K-rj53DwVRMYO3t5Yr 
  - Calculus for the Practical Man (J.E. Thompson)
  - Div, Grad, Curl, and All That: An Informal Text on Vector Calculus (Harry M. Schey)
  - Who Is Fourier? a Mathematical Adventure
  - Physics, Topology, Logic and Computation: A Rosetta Stone (John C. Baez, Mike Stay)
  - An Illustrated Guide to Relativity (Tatsu Takeuchi)
  - The Mathematics Of Quantum Mechanics (Martin Laforest)
  - A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations (Daniel Fleisch) or if you're also interested in a visual guide, I wrote one as well: https://github.com/photonlines/Intuitive-Guide-to-Maxwells-Equations 
  - Introduction to Elementary Particles (David J. Griffiths)
  - An Invitation to Applied Category Theory: Seven Sketches in Compositionality (Brendan Fong, David I Spivak)
  - Solving Mathematical Problems: A Personal Perspective (Terence Tao)

thread

mmcclellanSep 2018

I have seen this discussed online several times. Here is a HN thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14192894

that indicates the text Feynman first used was Calculus for the Practical Man by J. E. Thompson. Both are quality texts and as the linked HN thread notes, can be found on archive.org.

thread

gigonautApr 2017

actually I believe that was "Calculus for the Practical Man" by J.E. Thompson and it is also an excellent read.

thread

physicsyogiJan 2017

I'd also recommend Calculus for the Practical Man. It's what Feynman used and is quite good for learning how to calculate various things with calculus.

Incidentally, my college calculus class also used Stewart.

thread

batouJul 2015

Its huge yes but a lot of it is fluff and history. It does serve to keep it interesting however.

Quick page shot to show the scope and density: http://i.imgur.com/sV1WYFd.jpg

I have a number of other books as well that I use as a reference as well so no problems there (calculus for the practical man has some different insights). Oh and betterexplained.com.

thread

wumbernangJun 2015

Interesting - thanks for posting. Will grab a copy of that.

I seem to collect mathematics books. However this is still my favourite book on mathematics and only because it was written by a surgeon rather than a mathematician: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/383087.Mathematics

Warning: Took me a couple of years to get through.

Oh and 1946 copy of Calculus for the Practical Man by J E Thompson.

thread