Calculus: An Introduction to Thinkwell's Calculus

excellent explanations

02/01/2011

~ dorothy4

excellent concise explanations -

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The Basics
Overview
An Introduction to Thinkwell's Calculus Page [1 of 1]
Hi! And welcome to our studios. I'm Professor Edward Burger, professor of mathematics at Williams College, and I'd like to welcome you to this really interesting, new, and an innovative environment for learning. What we're going to do is we are going to actually turn things around and try to make calculus interesting, calculus understandable, and calculus fun. Now, you know, a lot of you, in fact, I'm hoping that you actually have a calculus book, it might look something like this, here's one, gee, it's a little heavy. Here it is. This one's called "Calculus, Math to Pump You Up". Well, the only pumping that I think this book is going to do is if you actually use it like this and bring it to the weight room because it's so heavy, it's so big. Maybe your book is just as big as this; maybe it's even bigger, I don't know.
Have you read your book, by the way? Well, it would be great if you read it, seriously, but I'll let you in on a little secret. I think most people don't read this book, and, in fact, I'll let you in on a bigger secret. When I took calculus, I didn't read the book, but don't tell people. Anyway, the point is this is so cold and dry and filled with theorems and proofs and all sorts of stuff, and usually, what folks do is just run right to the back of each section and try the problems and when they can't do the problem, they look at the worked out problems. And it's hard to get a good understanding of what calculus is all about.
We want to turn that around. What we want to do here is actually create an environment where we discuss the calculus, we explain it in simple easy to follow terms and really see that it's sort of an interesting endeavor, that there's a lot of sort of things that make a whole bunch of sense, and that it's actually sort of fun. And also empower you with the ability to understand it and to also understand other things. So, the difference is, what's the difference between what we are doing here and this. Well, first of all, this is on the information super highway. I'm coming to you courtesy of technology. I mean, I'm coming over the airwaves and you're seeing me -- ju, ju, ju. It's sort of fun, isn't it? Well, I'm sort of actually enjoying it, `cause it gives me a tingle right down my spine, but that's another story.
Okay, now, what's going on here though, is we've created an environment where we are going to interact with each other. So, I'll talk about stuff and then we'll actually have an opportunity for you to try something, and for you to get your hands dirty and try a problem, or try a question, and then we'll talk about it and get some feed back with each other. Now you'll notice right over here there's another white right rectangle and that's the place where I'll actually sort of write things in if I want something to be there for you to see. I'll put it; for example, I'm not going to say, you know, calculus is cool. There you see. And I want to say, math isn't as awful as you may think. Hear me? So we use that a lot and that's basically what we're all about here. The actual set is going to be, when we actually lecture, there'll be a table here. I'll be writing on the table and you'll be able to see what I'm writing, and this is our set. Do you like our set back here, it's sort of blue, not very exciting, but there's a lot of possibilities, a lot of opportunities, and we'll have fun with it.
For example, suppose I want to tell you the weather. Now you see, there it is, and you can see Massachusetts. It's beautiful, that's where I'm from. Maybe you want to actually go and to take a look at the moon. Well, there's a moon shot. Textbooks can't do that. It's going to be virtual. It's going to be now, and I hope you are going to really enjoy it. So, I want you to stay with us and I hope you have some fun. Thanks.