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Please rate these calculus books......


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I have three calculus books. I would rather not keep taking up shelf space for these. So, I thought I would ask opinions so I can decide which two to rid of.

 

Stewarts, newest version. Daughter is using in college now but can return to me at end of year.

 

Calculus by Anton, Bivens, and Davis. It says Wiley on it too. Its the 8th edition and my daughter used it for EPGY AP calculus last year.

 

Calculus with Applications by Lial, Greenwell, and Ritchey. 8th edition. 

 

All the books look good to me. But I don't have the time to sit and work through them to figure out what is best. I would like to rid of two and keep 1 for my younger children.

 

Thanks!!!

 

 

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I like both Stewart and Anton. Personally, I like to have a large variety of calculus books from which to pull explanations and problems. Each year when I teach calculus, I use Stewart, Anton, Smith and Minton, Kennedy, Larson, AOPS, Hughes-Hallett, Swokowski, to name a few.

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I am in the variety of calculus books club also.  We have an older version of Stewart's and the Lial's Calculus with Applications at our house along with a couple of others.  Dd loved Lial's.  Really enjoyed seeing how calculus was used in the real world. Not sure that it is as difficult as the others but it does serve a useful purpose.  We haven't done much with Stewart's but it is useful.  I might be tempted to sell that one if you can get a significant portion of what you paid for it back since it is the current edition and pick up a cheap old edition somewhere when needed for your younger children.  

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I am in the variety of calculus books club also.  We have an older version of Stewart's and the Lial's Calculus with Applications at our house along with a couple of others.  Dd loved Lial's.  Really enjoyed seeing how calculus was used in the real world. Not sure that it is as difficult as the others but it does serve a useful purpose.  We haven't done much with Stewart's but it is useful.  I might be tempted to sell that one if you can get a significant portion of what you paid for it back since it is the current edition and pick up a cheap old edition somewhere when needed for your younger children.  

I have been thinking I should just sell them all off since I am a good 4 years away from Calculus with the rest of the kids. By sell them all off, I mean let daughter use what she needs this year and sell the other two now. The EPGY book is current too, but I do not believe it is used at local schools so it would not be so easy to sell. In 4 years, any one of the books will be very cheap and out of current edition.

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I have been thinking I should just sell them all off since I am a good 4 years away from Calculus with the rest of the kids. By sell them all off, I mean let daughter use what she needs this year and sell the other two now. The EPGY book is current too, but I do not believe it is used at local schools so it would not be so easy to sell. In 4 years, any one of the books will be very cheap and out of current edition.

 

I would first check to see what prices you'd get for these books.  I think neither the 8th ed of Lial's nor the 8th of the WIley books are the latest, and both seem to be selling for $5 to $10 used at abebooks.  Given that, I'd personally rather keep them.

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I have two of those (Stewart and Anton) plus a third (Larson) all sitting here by my desk and I won't even have a kid in Calc again until next year! Keep the Stewart for sure and probably the Anton as a back up. I found it extra super-duper useful to have a second or third Calc book handy to pull out when my kids didn't understand a topic. Heck, I even have a really old one from my college days on my book shelf that I used as a reference back when DS22 was in high school.

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I have two of those (Stewart and Anton) plus a third (Larson) all sitting here by my desk and I won't even have a kid in Calc again until next year! Keep the Stewart for sure and probably the Anton as a back up. I found it extra super-duper useful to have a second or third Calc book handy to pull out when my kids didn't understand a topic. Heck, I even have a really old one from my college days on my book shelf that I used as a reference back when DS22 was in high school.

 

I just ordered a used Swokowski to add to my collection. I may have a calculus book issue...

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Count me as another multi-text fan.  We have Swokowski, Blank/Krantz, and my personal favorite, Leithold.  They each have their benefits, so I'd hold them, even for 5-10 years, if need be.  My favorites, in order, are:

 

Leithold

Anton

Swokowski

Stewart or Larson (tie)

 

The advantage of keeping them all is that you never know which is best student for your child, until they get there.

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Count me as another multi-text fan.  We have Swokowski, Blank/Krantz, and my personal favorite, Leithold.  They each have their benefits, so I'd hold them, even for 5-10 years, if need be.  My favorites, in order, are:

 

Leithold

Anton

Swokowski

Stewart or Larson (tie)

 

The advantage of keeping them all is that you never know which is best student for your child, until they get there.

 

Oh, I don't have Leithold. Is it wrong that I am coveting your calculus books?

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The advantage of keeping them all is that you never know which is best student for your child, until they get there.

 

This.  I have several (Foerster, Thomas, Lial, Larson, Fuller) even more than one edition of a couple.  Each child has used a different text.

 

I have seen Stewart and Anton (I thought I had Anton but can't find it now) and Lial's Calculus with Applications  is definitely easier and seems to be missing several chapters  (perhaps it was for Calc 1, whereas Stewart is used for Cal 1,2 and 3) but has problems from other texts (eg. Zumdahl) that demonstrates uses for calculus in other subjects.

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Oh, I don't have Leithold. Is it wrong that I am coveting your calculus books?

 

No, but you'll have to get your own copy -- mine is not for sale!  ;)

 

Leithold is a purist, but oh-so-easy-to-read.  That's why I love it.  It does the best job of bringing the fundamentals to the beginner.

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This.  I have several (Foerster, Thomas, Lial, Larson, Fuller) even more than one edition of a couple.  Each child has used a different text.

 

I have seen Stewart and Anton (I thought I had Anton but can't find it now) and Lial's Calculus with Applications  is definitely easier and seems to be missing several chapters  (perhaps it was for Calc 1, whereas Stewart is used for Cal 1,2 and 3) but has problems from other texts (eg. Zumdahl) that demonstrates uses for calculus in other subjects.

 

It's for courses like 'calculus for business and social sciences' or 'survey of calculus', not for calculus for math majors. It would be fine as a high school survey for someone who was going to take calculus in college but not as an ap text.

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I'm a 'keep the extra books' person - mostly because we've always had topics that weren't explained in a way that dc could understand in every math book I think...and so then we look at other math books to see if it's understandable with a different presentation....

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