fundamentals of calculus

JohnHenry

Hi Guys,
I am looking for a bit of help with getting a grasp of the fundamentals of calculus.
I must admit that i have a bit of a gripe with the way maths was taught to me in secondary school, they force feed us examples and examples and I never got any feel for what i was doing when differentating or integrating. It was always do this, then this step, then the next step, like sheep following each other. I struggled through but was always frustrated because what people can do when they have a great understanding of it is amazing.
I would love to get a a grasp of the fundamentals of calculus and if anyone would have any advice on books which could give me a feel for it in as simple terms as poosible i would be grateful...
Anyone else feel simular, love to do something about it anyway, will have a bit of time on my hands soon, Good old recession...
Cheers guys

LeixlipRed

There are literally hundreds of introductory type calculus books. I find Thomas' Calculus perfectly fine but others hate it. I'm sure you'll get plenty of recommendations. Also, the Leaving Cert textbook Texts and Tests 5 has basic calculus in it and it's quite simple to read while having a little bit of theory thrown in for good measure. Quite basic though.

silverside

If you really want to *understand* calculus (as opposed to be good at differentiating and integrating) I recommend Spivak's "Calculus".

It's a first year uni book, well written.

lisbon_lions

Check out this guys youtube lessons at:

http://khanacademy.org/ there is a section there on calculus somewhere.

excellent maths resource that worked for me with linear algebra and probability by reinforcing what I covered in class.