I want to learn calculus.

That’s right, but according to that argument you need to learn everything, every piece of knowledge that exists on earth, which is impossible.

I’d say a carpenter doesn’t need nonlinear optimization theory for his work. The only motivation to learn it would be that he is interested in it, which is of course a noble motivation. But he is most likely to forget it soon afterwards, if he doesn’t use it on a regular basis.

What do you do for a living?

**Yes, YES!

**Damn!

I’m an IT Generalist (Management) by profession, but I have an annoying habit of sticking fingers into all kinds of other, diverse pies just out of plain curiosity.

Calculus finally made intuitive sense to me when I read this book some years back:

Calculus the Easy Way

Do they make an “Inverse Trig Substitution the Easy Way” book? :rolleyes:

Yeah, but you only need to get an understanding of the basic concepts, there’s really no need to deal with gruesome calculations of multiple integrations or PDE systems with boundary conditions.

How can I be sure I won’t like jabbing this harpoon into my eyeball unless I do it?

:slight_smile:

Roots through closet

What you need is:
Calculus Made Easy
Being A Very-Simplest Introduction To Those Beautiful Methods Of Reckoning Which Are Generally Called By The Terrifying Names Of The
DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS
And The
INTEGRAL CALCULUS
.

Don’t let the name fool you, it was written in the late 1800’s and finally published in 1910 under the the pseudonym F.R.S (fellow of the Royal Society) by Silvanus P. Thompson, professor of physics at the City and Guilds Technical College in Finsbury England.

This book was the first of its kind ever written and is still the best.

And damn the lack of a centering function.