Calculus for beginners

Question

What resources for "Calculus" do you recommend for beginners; they should describe the topics in a way easy to understand?

This has been asked before. http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2395/what-are-the-recommended-textbooks-for-introductory-calculus — Baudrillard, Feb 27 '11 at 08:47
Does this answer your question? What are the recommended textbooks for introductory calculus? — , May 21 '23 at 23:48

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 27 '11 at 14:17

4

Another very helpful site is http://www.khanacademy.org/. It has videos on almost any subject and they are only about 10minutes long. They are clear and easy to understand. Khan teaches the idea and does example problems. I use it all the time.

answered Feb 27 '11 at 14:17

Ania

67

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 27 '11 at 07:32

2

Books:

Calculus by Michael Spivak
Calculus by Thomas Finney
Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, Volume 1 by Richard Courant and Fritz John
Calculus, Vol. 1: by Tom M. Apostol
A Course of Pure Mathematics by G.H. Hardy
Elementary Analysis: The Theory of Calculus by Kenneth Ross

Online Resources:

There are lot of resources online like MIT OCW which provide material as well as problem sheets which you can work and hone your skills.
- I got this video from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbIQW0gkgxo

Hope this helps.

Happy Reading!!

answered Feb 27 '11 at 07:32

Also AoPS Calculus. – quasicompactscheme Feb 27 '11 at 21:07
Most of these books are for smart students who typically have some exposure to calculus already, not for someone who is a beginner. – Batman Dec 10 '14 at 16:27

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 10 '14 at 16:31

1

A very complete book I recommend is Calculus from Ron Larson.

The explanations are very clear and intuitive. However, it is not very concise.

edited Dec 10 '14 at 16:31

Null

1,332

answered Dec 10 '14 at 16:11

Pao

225

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 27 '11 at 07:46

Here is the first calculus resource I ever used: http://www.calculus-help.com/tutorials

I watched all of them around 4-5 years ago, and remember liking them. It explains limits and the derivative in a very simple way. I mean in a really simple way. I doubt there is a more basic explanation around. If this is your first time ever looking at calculus, I would definitely give this site a try. (If you feel your mathematics is University level, maybe just skip it)

Hope that helps,

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 07 '17 at 12:20

For the complete beginner to calculus, the kindle book "Get your head around: Basic Calculs I" by Austin Hartnell-Jones is a pretty gentle introduction, and takes time to explain things using very simple language: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Get-Your-Head-Around-Calculus-ebook/dp/B074HP82R4

The book "calculus made easy" by Silvanus Thompson is quite old but actually very easy to read, full of intuition and insight, and a good introduction if you have some basic algebra/geometry. I think its out of copyright and you can get a free copy from project gutenberg (there are also newer reprints available quite cheaply on amazon etc.)

Some online video resources that are fantastic for learning calculus are the Khan academy (mentioned already by Ania) and the MIT online video courses (can find them also on youtube):

Single variable: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01-single-variable-calculus-fall-2006/video-lectures/

(there are also further excellent MIT video courses on multivariable calculus, but better to start at the beginning).

Calculus for beginners

5 Answers5