A tour of the calculus
by David Berlinski · first published 1995
75% recommend25% critical
"The calculus represents humanity's great and profound meditation on the theme of continuity. Time and space are given voice, and speed and area are sub-ordinated to the harsh concept of a limit. The introduction of the real numbers allows the landscape of mathematical analysis to be suffused with thrilling light. In that lit-up landscape, the infinite is for the first time charmed into compliance, men and women gaining the eerie power to ask of certain processes, Suppose it goes on forever, what then? and finding within the calculus a comprehensive answer." "In clear and instructive language
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"A tour of the calculus" http://www.amazon.com/Tour-Calculus-David-Berlinski/dp/06797...
on “Ask HN: What books would you give a 16-year old interested in Math?” ↗…Land. Or you might benefit enormously from looking for "chapter books" on the subjects -- books filled with paragraphs of actual English instead of endless formulas. This might include something like A Tour Of The Calculus or various things about math history or biographies of mathy people. It depends on why you seem to be "missing" something and your post doesn't actually give any insight into what seems to be missing…
on “Ask HN: Best resources to gain math intuition?” ↗I enjoyed "A tour of the calculus," at least the half I read. https://www.amazon.com/Tour-Calculus-David-Berlinski/dp/0679...
on “Ask HN: Are there books for mathematics like Feynman's lectures on physics?” ↗Not me but someone I know got a lot of this mathematically: A Tour of the Calculus by David Berlinski
on “Ask HN: The book that did it for you in math and/or CS?” ↗I will recommend the book A tour of the calculus as another potential resource for those interested.
on “Calculus Made Easy” ↗…serious subjects. Also: The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure Reading this with my sons is the first time I had heard of Fibonacci numbers and I had a lot of math in high school. Also also: A Tour of the Calculus.
on “What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?” ↗As a non mathematician I enjoyed David Berlinksy's "A Tour of the Calculus" when I first read it back in the late 90's. It's similar to this lecture in that it strives to provide an understanding to non-mathematical types by exploring the principles without tossing lots of notation…
on “The Beauty of Calculus [video]” ↗…convincing him algebra was hard and something he could not do when he had been doing it competently for years. Also, consider jumping in at the top end and working backwards. I read about half of "A tour of the calculus" with my son to help win him over and convince him math is your friend. Think of it this way: Just because you can't spell doesn't mean you won't fall in love with writing poetry. Once you are thrilling…
on “More parents, students saying 'no' to homework” ↗The most impenetrable book I remember reading was A Tour of the Calculus by David Berlinski. Here's a representative sentence: Unlike Euclidean geometry, arithmetic rises directly from the wayward human heart, the lub-dub under the physician's stethoscope or the lover's…
on “This Man Moved to a Desert Island to Disappear. Here's What Happened” ↗…discussion about math and light on formulas. Let him choose a statistics track over an algebra/geometry/trig track. (We did some algebra and geometry but not too much.) Read about halfway through "A tour of the calculus". I dropped out of calculus my first quarter in college and never wanted to see the subject again, after having been inducted into Mu Alpha Theta in 11th grade. He would spend an hour on this with me…
on “Stop trying to make maths "fun" - lessons also for coding?” ↗