hi I'm James Stewart
I'm the author of the book you're going to be using
to learn calculus I'd
like to chat with you to explain how you can
make good use of the book videos
CDs and your lectures in
order to succeed in calculus many
students find the calculus is much
more difficult than the mathematics
they previously studied such as
algebra and geometry perhaps
the reason that the ideas of calculus
are elusive is that calculus
deals with change with
motion with quantities to
approach other quantities you
can nevertheless be successful
in your study of calculus if you
were approached it in the right way namely
actively
when you read the book Be Active
not passive have pencil
and paper and calculator at hand to
check calculations or draw diagrams before
trying the homework exercise read the
section including the examples
and before you look at the solution to
an example cover up the solution
and try doing the problem yourself first
if you struggle to solve
the problem first you'll get
a lot more out of the solution in the text
likewise before
you watch one of the videos try
the problem yourself first then
when you watch the videos you
can appreciate better what the instructor
is doing
I think you'll find the book in these videos
very helpful in learning calculus but
even more important is attending the
lectures to illustrate
how you can make the book work in conjunction with
the doctors I'd like to tell you a
story a
few years ago I was invited
to give a lecture to the professors at California
State University Sacramento I
arrived early so I passed the time
sitting on a bench enjoying the good weather outside
the Math building a
student came along and sat down on
the bench beside me took
her to book and started to read it
I glanced over and noticed that the
book he was reading was
the calculus book I had written so
I introduced myself to him as
the author of the book he was reading well
of course he was surprised I
didn't ask him if he was reading the book to
study for a test he said
no I don't have a test but
I have a Calculus class later today and
I'm reading the section corresponding to today's
lecture well I said to him
I'm happy to hear that how
can I get my own students at McMaster University
to read the book before class he
said to me tell your students
that whenever I look at the book before going
to class I understand
electric much much better
well I suggest that's a great
way to make the book and electors work
with each other no
I know what you're thinking I
know you won't always have time to do that
but whenever you can
try to read the book and read
it actively before you
go to class another
thing I think you'll find helpful is Tec
Tec tools
for enriching calculus
calculus often deals with things
that move that's difficult
to depict in a book but
it's easier to show on a computer screen
when you see this Tech logo
in the book it refers you to
a module or a visual where
you can see things move a
better understanding of the idea
being discussed Tech
also has what we call homework
hints for the exercises
that are indicated by printing the exercise
number in read these
hints act like a tutor they
ask you questions to guide you
in the right direction if
the first hint isn't enough for you to see
how to do the problem click
on the next hint and so on
well it's time for
you to start your study of calculus
you might want to begin by
reading the preview of calculus which
is just before chapter one there
I discuss some of the big ideas
of calculus and some of the questions
that you can answer with Calculus
I wish you well in your course and
by the time you graduate I hope you
will agree with me the calculus
is not only practical but
also a beautiful subject in
its own right