
A Tour of the Calculus
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Narrated by:
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Dennis Holland
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By:
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David Berlinski
Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets, or to prove that a man could cross a room and eventually touch the opposite wall. Just how calculus makes these things possible and in doing so finds a correspondence between real numbers and the real world is the subject of this dazzling book by a writer of extraordinary clarity and stylistic brio. Even as he initiates us into the mysteries of real numbers, functions, and limits, Berlinski explores the furthest implications of his subject, revealing how the calculus reconciles the precision of numbers with the fluidity of the changing universe.
©1995 David Berlinski (P)2013 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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Becoming Calculus
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A Tour of The Calculus
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In spite of my family telling me that I use things like algebra every day when I cook or crochet, it was hard to believe that I could understand complicated concepts of mathematics. Having completed this book I am proud to say I understood most of it, although I could not repeat it, and I'm thrilled to be able to participate in conversations were terms like derivative and functions are peppered through.
I look forward to the next book in the series with great anticipation. Thank you so much for making the calculus come to life for someone who does not consider themselves logical or mathematical but rather verbal and spatial.
Calc explained for the rest of us!
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Good, but not great for listening
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Calculus may appear boring at first before you understand it, but it becomes so beautiful and so useful to understanding science once you do.
I plan to listen to this over and over just to help me explain calculus better to others.
Also I read so some of the other less glowing reviews and obviously I disagree and only can say that it is true that the author is definitely verbose and is maybe a little bit of overly descriptive in some places, it is still simply an excellent alternative source for anyone studying calculus and also trying to work some problems. Great job I say to David Berlinski. I am in disbelief at some of the negative reviews I read after first posting my review so I added this last paragraph to counter the more critical reviews. It is so much easier to destroy than create.
Maybe people that don't understand it would have to listen more that once but I will listen more times just because it is so well done.
Absolutely fantastic for a math lover - The best really for listening
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A Great topic, a convoluted way of delivery
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These are not clever or humorous allusions to real persons or places or ideas, but vague “discussions in a smoky room, with roasted plums and the scratches of Clementi on impossibly nostalgic vinyl.” A few of these would be tolerable, but on every page, you must wade through them. They serve only to distract from every point, not elucidate it.
Go elsewhere for an interesting introduction to calculus. Come here if you enjoy filling your time with contrivances.
Frustratingly Bad Writing
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A Tour of Incalculable Verbosity
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Way to much superfluous language. Good god man just say what you mean!
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As for the book, the language is quite flowery. Perhaps if I could have persisted in listening to the book further, the language would have grown on me, but, alas, it just seems to be too much window-dressing for the subject. The analogies did not illumine the primary subject, but seemed stretched to give the illusion of literary skill.
I had high hopes for an interesting history of the calculus, but found only frustration.
Top Poet among Mathemeticians
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