Read This! The MAA Online book review column How to Ace the rest of Calculus: The Streetwise Guide by Colin Adams, Abigail Thompson, and Joel Hass Reviewed by Kevin Anderson

How to Ace the Rest does a good job of explaining the basic concepts of Calculus II and III with humorous and understandable explanations, and examples such as:

Fifi drags her owner along a sidewalk that's 200 meters long. If Fifi (she's a poodle, although I guess that's obvious from the name) exerts a force of 2 newtons on the leash, and the leash is at an angle of 45 degrees from the ground, how much work does Fifi do?

Suppose you hurl a wedge of Gouda cheese from the corner of the roof of a building 50 feet above the ground. You launch the cheese with an initial velocity vector v₀ = <8,6,4> in feet per second. Your roommate is standing on the ground at a point 14 feet 4 inches in the x-direction and 10 feet 9 inches in the y-direction from the corner of the building. Determine if your cheese will hit him.

• Indeterminate Forms and Improper Integrals
• Polar Coordinates
• Infinite Series
• Vectors
• Parametric Curves
• Surfaces and Graphing
• Functions of Several Variables and Their Partial Derivatives
• Multiple Integrals
• Vector fields
• (and most importantly) What's Going to Be on the Final?

To Students: The bottom line is that this book explains the basic concepts and ideals of Calculus II and III very well; the examples are clear, understandable and funny! The book also points out common mistakes that students make, which your instructor may not point out in lecture.

Yet another nice feature of this book is the "Just the Facts" sheets at the end of the book. These sheets contain all the important formulas. You can cut the sheets out of the book and use them as a reference guide and study sheet, a useful tool for you slackers (you know who you are) who cram for the Calculus Exam the night before.

To Faculty: This book has many nice examples and entertaining explanations of the basic concepts in Calculus. It would be a good resource book to add a little spice and humor to your lectures. The only negative comment I have is that the book didn't cover volumes and surfaces of revolution.

Publication Data: How to Ace the rest of Calculus: The Streetwise Guide, by Colin Adams, Abigail Thompson, and Joel Hass. W. H. Freeman, 2001. Paperback, 240pp., $14.95. ISBN 0716741741.

Kevin Anderson (andersk@mwsc.edu) is assistant professor of mathematics at Missouri Western State College.

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