Reddit reviews Calculus Made Easy

There would have been a time that I would have suggested getting a curriculum
text book and going through that, but if you're doing this for independent work
I wouldn't really suggest that as the odds are you're not going to be using a
very good source.

Going on the typical

Arithmetic > Algebra > Calculus

****

Arithmetic

Arithmetic refresher. Lots of stuff in here - not easy.


I think you'd be set after this really. It's a pretty terse text in general.

*****

Algebra

Algebra by Chrystal Part I

Algebra by Chrystal Part II

You can get both of these algebra texts online easily and freely from the search

chrystal algebra part I filetype:pdf

chrystal algebra part II filetype:pdf

I think that you could get the first (arithmetic) text as well, personally I
prefer having actual books for working. They're also valuable for future
reference. This filetype:pdf search should be remembered and used liberally
for finding things such as worksheets etc (eg trigonometry worksheet<br /> filetype:pdf for a search...).

Algebra by Gelfland

No where near as comprehensive as chrystals algebra, but interesting and well
written questions (search for 'correspondence series' by Gelfand).

Calculus

Calculus made easy - Thompson

This text is really good imo, there's little rigor in it but for getting a
handle on things and bashing through a few practical problems it's pretty
decent. It's all single variable. If you've done the algebra and stuff before
this then this book would be easy.

Pauls Online Notes (Calculus)

These are just a solid set of Calculus notes, there're lots of examples to work
through which is good. These go through calc I, II, III... So a bit further than
you've asked (I'm not sure why you state up to calc II but ok).

Spivak - Calculus

If you've gone through Chrystals algebra then you'll be used to a formal
approach. This text is only single variable calculus (so that might be calc I
and II in most places I think, ? ) but it's extremely well written and often
touted as one of the best Calculus books written. It's very pure, where as
something like Stewart has a more applied emphasis.

**

Geometry

I've got given any geometry sources, I'm not too sure of the best source for
this or (to be honest) if you really need it for the above. If someone has
good geometry then they're certainly better off, many proofs are given
gemetrically as well and having an intuition for these things is only going to
be good. But I think you can get through without a formal course on it.... I'm
not confident suggesting things on it though, so I'll leave it to others. Just
thought I'd mention it.

****

Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus Thompson.

Its Prologue

Considering how many fools can calculate, it is surprising that it
should be thought either a difficult or a tedious task for any other fool
to learn how to master the same tricks.

Some calculus-tricks are quite easy. Some are enormously difficult.
The fools who write the textbooks of advanced mathematics—and they
are mostly clever fools—seldom take the trouble to show you how easy
the easy calculations are. On the contrary, they seem to desire to
impress you with their tremendous cleverness by going about it in the
most difficult way.

Being myself a remarkably stupid fellow, I have had to unteach
myself the difficulties, and now beg to present to my fellow fools the
parts that are not hard. Master these thoroughly, and the rest will
follow. What one fool can do, another can.

And a link to a physical copy

[Calculus Made Easy] ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1456531980/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?pc_redir=T1) for calculus. This book should be the standard textbook.

This book (available on Amazon as well http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Made-Silvanus-Phillips-Thompson/dp/1456531980) helped me understand a lot of the whys of calculus http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33283/33283-pdf.pdf

UK Amazon

US Amazon