Sunday, October 28, 2018

A First Course in Calculus, 3rd Ed., Serge Lang, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass, 1973

This text would eventually go to 5 editions and a reissue of the first edition called Short Calculus.  The edition in the title is the version that I used as a freshman at University College Cardiff in the fall of 1975.  The course was taught by Dr. G.R.H. Greaves.  At the time I thought that Dr. Greaves was in his 40s, but he was actually in his twenties - in fact, he was the last of my teachers still active in the classroom, only retiring a few years ago, and I will be 62 in a few days.

Dr. Greaves was a great teacher and the book was ideal for the course (I took 1A for mathematics majors rather than IB for science majors who didn't plan to pursue a degree in mathematics.)  As a result, I was in a much better course, one that looked forward to real analysis.  It remains a favorite, though since I have had to repair my International Student edition, I more often refer to Short Calculus.  It isn't the book I would recommend to students today - though it is better than most current calculus.  I'd recommend the books by Gilbert Strang or Peter Lax.  Personally, if I were beginning calculus again, I'd like to be in a course that used Peter Lax's book.  I'll write a review at some point.  My all-time favorite remains A course in Pure Mathematics by G.H. Hardy.

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