While transcribing ancient mystical sounds from the cassette tapes of Atlantis to shining rainbow crystal discs is entertaining, the reason I'm here is to learn physics and mathematics, and at this point, that means calculus. I was so frustrated by the little book of Sawyer that I have decided to put it away for now and pick up a much heavier book, a college calculus textbook given to me by a Friendly Mathematician. I hate to disappoint the other Friendly Mathematician who gave me the Sawyer book, but it just left out too much material and attempted to simplify things too much.

I am a step-by-step, pedantic sort of learner, and I need the more comprehensive approach. This next textbook will provide it, I hope. It is CALCULUS by Howard Anton, a well-worn text from 1980. There is an accompanying volume for teachers with all the answers to the problems in it. The Friendly Mathematician told me not to consult that last book, but since I am not in a course with other people and a teacher, I will need it. The book is big, thick, and heavy, though not as heavy as SoyMac the laptop. The cover features pictures of famous mathematicians in a postmodern design. Newton appears in a golden circle, while J. Carl Friedrich Gauss is being hit in the face by a rectangular solid with Descartes' picture on it.

The first few chapters offer a review of precalculus and set theory. I will pass through these hoping that I have not forgotten too much. I have not encountered set theory since my junior high school days, where it was foisted on us seventh-graders under the guise of "new math." That was, uh, quite some time ago for me and I wonder whether I will remember any of it. Looking at the simplest set definitions, it does sound vaguely familiar, though it brings back uneasy memories not of amusing pop tunes of the mid-60s, but of humiliation and failure in my math classes. Well, that was then, this is now, except for the soundtrack.

Posted at 2:48 am | link