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Can anyone comment on what would be the 'prereq' for this? Are the video lectures available anywhere (he seems to have taught a class by same name before)? And,

Can anyone comment on what would be the 'prereq' for this? Are the video lectures available anywhere (he seems to have taught a class by same name before)? And, approximately how much time would it take for someone going over it as self-study? I know the answer to the last question probably depends, but hopefully a ball mark estimate can be given

acangiano 16y ago
It looks like an understanding of Calculus and basic Physics is all that is required to read this book. Ballkpark estimate (how ironic, having to do a ballpark estimation before having read a book on how to do ballpark estimates): between 10 and 30 hours.
- jimmyjim 16y ago
  10 to 30 hours? How did you arrive to that number? The text seems to have many exercise problem. I was expecting an answer like '2 months, going with an hour a day'. At any rate, thanks.
  - acangiano 16y ago
    30 hours means 4 pages an hour. Even solving a few problems here and there, it's hard to imagine you'd proceed at a slower pace than that. That said, I didn't see that each chapter has a bunch of extra problems at the end. These may take you extra time. I still believe that it's a few weeks project at best, not months.
- GFischer 16y ago
  When do you people in the US start to learn about integrals? Is it expected that a first-year undergraduate student already has the knowledge to understand the book? I don't have the required "prerequisites" as the GP puts it to understand the book, but I should :( and it might shame me into studying a bit :) (then again, I probably won't)
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - acangiano 16y ago
    I started doing integrals on my own when I was 14 (grade 9), but my classmates didn't learn about integrals until grade 13. This was in Italy however, and I'm not sure about when they're introduced to students in the States. I can tell you though, that a first year undergraduate student at a scientific faculty shouldn't be overly worried about approaching a book like this.
  - golwengaud 16y ago
    (Single) integrals are freshman calculus, which is nominally taught in the first year of university. In reality, my experience is that many students (and, I would guess most science/engineering/math majors) take AP calculus during their last year of high school (17-18 years old), and proceed to differential equations, multivariable calculus, or whatever is next in their major's sequence during the first year of university.
    - GFischer 16y ago
      Thanks for the answers. For all the flak US education receives, the option of taking AP classes sounds good (and it gives college credits, which is even better!). From your post I could find http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement_Calculus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement_Calculus which shows that AP Calculus does indeed include integrals.
      - jgg 16y ago
        Thanks for the answers. For all the flak US education receives, the option of taking AP classes sounds good (and it gives college credits, which is even better!). This is utterly derailing the main topic of conversation, but... I know that a lot of mathematicians dislike AP Calculus. The original thinking was that Calculus couldn't be taught to highschoolers, so you waited until University to take it. Aspiring mathematicians would take a rigorous, proof-based Caclulus course, which would prepare them to tackle harder subjects in the future. Everyone else (engineers, chemists, physicists, etc.) would take a more general/applied course. Now, all but a handful of universities offer such courses, under the assumption that anyone who wants to be a mathematician has surely taken AP Caclulus. So the idea of proof-based Calc. for future mathematicians has been lost in transition, and the end result is that you have kids hitting Multivariate Calculus and Differential Equations who haven't seen a proof in their lives. The current AP Calculus courses are 99% computation. I was challenged while working through Spviak's book with no teacher guidance in highschool, but I scored a perfect 5 on the AP test with little effort.
carterschonwald 16y ago
just read it, most of the material should be accessible to someone with just a decent HS level (up to ~ calculus) math background.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

acangiano 16y ago

It looks like an understanding of Calculus and basic Physics is all that is required to read this book. Ballkpark estimate (how ironic, having to do a ballpark estimation before having read a book on how to do ballpark estimates): between 10 and 30 hours.

jimmyjim 16y ago
10 to 30 hours? How did you arrive to that number? The text seems to have many exercise problem. I was expecting an answer like '2 months, going with an hour a day'. At any rate, thanks.
- acangiano 16y ago
  30 hours means 4 pages an hour. Even solving a few problems here and there, it's hard to imagine you'd proceed at a slower pace than that. That said, I didn't see that each chapter has a bunch of extra problems at the end. These may take you extra time. I still believe that it's a few weeks project at best, not months.
GFischer 16y ago
When do you people in the US start to learn about integrals? Is it expected that a first-year undergraduate student already has the knowledge to understand the book? I don't have the required "prerequisites" as the GP puts it to understand the book, but I should :( and it might shame me into studying a bit :) (then again, I probably won't)
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- acangiano 16y ago
  I started doing integrals on my own when I was 14 (grade 9), but my classmates didn't learn about integrals until grade 13. This was in Italy however, and I'm not sure about when they're introduced to students in the States. I can tell you though, that a first year undergraduate student at a scientific faculty shouldn't be overly worried about approaching a book like this.
- golwengaud 16y ago
  (Single) integrals are freshman calculus, which is nominally taught in the first year of university. In reality, my experience is that many students (and, I would guess most science/engineering/math majors) take AP calculus during their last year of high school (17-18 years old), and proceed to differential equations, multivariable calculus, or whatever is next in their major's sequence during the first year of university.
  - GFischer 16y ago
    Thanks for the answers. For all the flak US education receives, the option of taking AP classes sounds good (and it gives college credits, which is even better!). From your post I could find http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement_Calculus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement_Calculus which shows that AP Calculus does indeed include integrals.
    - jgg 16y ago
      Thanks for the answers. For all the flak US education receives, the option of taking AP classes sounds good (and it gives college credits, which is even better!). This is utterly derailing the main topic of conversation, but... I know that a lot of mathematicians dislike AP Calculus. The original thinking was that Calculus couldn't be taught to highschoolers, so you waited until University to take it. Aspiring mathematicians would take a rigorous, proof-based Caclulus course, which would prepare them to tackle harder subjects in the future. Everyone else (engineers, chemists, physicists, etc.) would take a more general/applied course. Now, all but a handful of universities offer such courses, under the assumption that anyone who wants to be a mathematician has surely taken AP Caclulus. So the idea of proof-based Calc. for future mathematicians has been lost in transition, and the end result is that you have kids hitting Multivariate Calculus and Differential Equations who haven't seen a proof in their lives. The current AP Calculus courses are 99% computation. I was challenged while working through Spviak's book with no teacher guidance in highschool, but I scored a perfect 5 on the AP test with little effort.

carterschonwald 16y ago

just read it, most of the material should be accessible to someone with just a decent HS level (up to ~ calculus) math background.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]