Calculus in Context

James Callahan, Kenneth Hoffman, David Cox, Donal O’Shea, Harriet Pollatsek, Lester Senechal

Digital versions PDF
Source available     LaTeX source
Exercises About 1000
Answers No
Solution manual Available for instructors upon request
Other ancillaries Instructors’ guide, Mathematica and Sage notebooks, QBasic programs
License Copyright by Five Colleges, Inc.
  • Text for two semesters of calculus
  • 869 pages, 12 chapters
  • Handbook for instructors
  • Eight notebooks in Mathematica and Sage for some of the topics
  • Print version not available
  • For more information and to download

This textbook, originally published by W. H. Freeman in 1995, is the result of the Five College Calculus Project, a multi-year project funded by the NSF beginning in 1986. The unifying concept of a dynamical system is used throughout to develop calculus in the broader context of scientific questions. “Therefore, differential equations belong at the center of calculus, and technology makes this possible at the introductory level.” The text is aimed at a broad audience as the authors believe “that calculus is one of the great bonds that unifies science. All students should have an opportunity to see how the language and tools of calculus help forge that bond.” (Quotes are from the overview on the book’s home page, which gives an excellent picture of the nature of this unusual book.)

Chapter Titles

  1. A Context for Calculus
  2. Successive Approximations
  3. The Derivative
  4. Differential Equations
  5. Techniques of Differentiation
  6. The Integral
  7. Periodicity
  8. Dynamical Systems
  9. Functions of Several Variables
  10. Series and Approximations
  11. Techniques of Integration
  12. Case Studies