The best-selling introductory mathematics textbook for students on engineering and science degree and pre-degree courses. Sales stand at more than half a million copies world-wide.Its unique programmed approach really works! Many thousands of students have found that they understand and excel through using this book. It takes you through the mathematics in a step-by-step fashion with a wealth of examples and exercises. The text demands that you engage with it by asking you to complete steps that you should be able to manage from previous examples or knowledge you have acquired, while carefully introducing new steps. By working with the authors through the examples, you become proficient as you go. By the time you come to trying examples on your own, confidence is high. Aimed at undergraduates on Foundation and First Year degree programmes in all Engineering disciplines and Science. The Foundation section covers mathematics from GCSE onwards to allow for revision and gap-filling, and so means the book can be used for a range of abilities and all levels of access.
Every topic covered within this books is explained in a manner that would make sense to a child. In terms of clarity of explanation and exposition, I have not read a better textbook than this. While it's limitations with regards to scope exist, it would be unfair to judge the book by them. In fact, reading this book, I felt myself wishing all textbooks could be written this well, and perhaps that is why so many are quick to criticise the material that isn't included. For my own purposes I would say it lacked very very little.
I studied engineering for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, and this book was invaluable throughout. Whenever another text was needed, it was the principles explained with such beautiful clarity within this book that opened the door for the other texts to be comprehensible. My copy now resides with my sister who is using it to study postgraduate physics. She also notes the limitations on scope, but in regard to a physics degree, and at the same time shares my own high regard for it.
If you are studying any mathematical based subject at degree level, then you won't regret obtaining a copy of this book. In my own experience, no topic covered within was ever covered more clearly anywhere else. It is as powerful a tool as a calculator.
This book represents a masterpiece in clear exposition. It takes the patient reader from quite basic mathematics through to that required by third year undergraduates in engineering and physical science courses in planned, frame-based, systematic and methodical steps. Each chapter has revision summaries, revision exercises and quizzes together with answers. Even mathematics undergraduates would probably benefit from it as part of their reading diet.
It's been the 'staple' diet for such courses for decades for a reason: it has few if any peers!
My 5th edition saw me through two degrees and when I met my wife I noted her engineer step father had a copy of the 4th edition sat on his shelves. Along with the higher one I have never found myself wanting. It explains things in a way I get as opposed to other maths books and their insistance on simplifying and putting in standard form half way through an exercise. If you ever programmed in your life and want to know maths. This.
Good explanations are given as well as comprehensive and detailed examples. The only drawback is that it is not tailored to any specific course so it isn't well rounded but a large scope of material is included.
I wrote exactly 983 pages on my tablet and required 275 hours to solve every single problem. Despite most of the problems were trivial, I enjoyed "Further exercises" with a diverse range of difficulty levels. Certain chapters felt outdated and leaned on repetitive computations or even Excel, but I enjoyed sections on integral calculus and Laplace transform and learned a few new tricks.
A must-have to understand applications with minimal theory and no proofs. Really for engineers, but physicists and pure mathematicians that are starting out at advanced level high school or first-year undergrads will gain a lot by working through the exercises as they begin from the fundamentals to the most challenging, in a step-by-step build up. Brilliant.
This book took me six months and almost three hundred hours to finish, and my basic maths is much stronger for it. There isn't a single time that I felt something was poorly explained or vague. Solutions to both the end of chapter questions (easier) and the further questions (harder, MUST do to reinforce concepts) are available for free online. I skipped most of the foundation chapters, except for partial fractions, and the statistics section at the end as there are better sources for it. Could not recommend this textbook high enough for students moving from natural sciences to computational or engineering subjects; this is the solid foundation that your further knowledge can be built on.
My life had been rescued by this book. I used this book to finish my bachelor's degree. The instructions are clear and step-by-step. IMO this is one best textbook of all time.