Question for upperclassmen

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm finally done with calculus and I was wondering if I should return the book for a pretty good amount of money or save it. It is the full book from intro through vector calc. How helpful/necessary is the book in future classes? My major is aero.</p>

2

<p>I wouldn’t believe that you would need it. I never have. Calculus will be drilled into you so hard in the next couple years it will be like second nature. I do still have almost all of my junior- and senior-level textbooks, but that is because I knew I wanted to do grad school and knew it would potentially be useful, and so far, I am glad I kept them.</p>

3

<p>I’d keep it… it’s technical, and you never know. Rather than for the things in it that are second nature, it will be useful for the things that you <em>don’t</em> use that often… results concerning convergence of series, for instance.</p>

<p>What kind of % return are you getting on the book? Did you like the book?</p>

4

<p>AMT,</p>

<p>You can get a lot, if not all of that stuff, from the internet. Basic calculus concepts are all over the place online. I would just use that and save the money. Keep books that aren’t all over the internet. The more specialized books - like gas dynamics and heat transfer - are much more useful since they don’t have nearly as much good information online as Calc I - III do.</p>

5

<p>I can get up to 50% for it and it cost $222. Would I really need the book or could I just look up the odd thing I don’t remember online somewhere? I kinda want to keep it and I kinda want to sell it. I mean it’s a sleek looking calc book great for reference or $110 in my pocket. It does look cool though lol :<a href=“http://image.dealoz.com/image/us/652/190652.jpg[/url]”>http://image.dealoz.com/image/us/652/190652.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>^The integral sign thing is funny, but I think the artwork leaves something to be desired…</p>

7

<p>boneh3ad:</p>

<p>While I agree in principle, the internet will never be the kind of reference that a book will be, not even for “basic calculus”. It’s a matter of degrees… it really comes down to the individual’s preference. A lot of it has to do with how well you like the book… if you don’t like the book, get rid of it. If the book was good, keep it. I’ve had some experience with Stewart and he’s pretty good for basic calculus… a little elementary, perhaps, but a very good practical reference, if anything, more appropriate for scientists and engineers than for mathematicians.</p>

8

<p>You could always return that edition of the book and buy a previous edition. I had the fourth edition of Stewart back when I took my Calc stuff. The book was fine and can now be picked up for $20 online.</p>

<p>Maybe sell your edition online for $150 and replace it with an older edition?</p>

<p>Also, while the internet can be faster, it’s often much more difficult to navigate when you don’t quite remember the name of the term you’re looking for. If you know material it’s kinda similar to it’s really easy to open a book and flip through 100 pages in a minute.</p>

9

<p>I’ve needed my calc book only a couple of times, but it sure came in handy then! I would keep some edition of it, for sure.</p>

10

<p>There’s nothing in it you can’t find online.</p>

11

<p>I never thought of buying an older edition. That’s what I will most likely end up doing. Thanks all, for the advice.</p>

12

<p>nooooo, noooo, nooooo</p>

<p>I didn’t throw any of the ‘pure’ books i have…like calc, phy, chem, solid mech, diff eq, statistics…that’s my life, those books mean something to me, and I do use them for reference as I expect you would. wouldn’t sell em’ for full price. </p>

<p>really surprised I am not hearing the same for other people though, I disagree with much of the posts above. </p>

<p>that being said a lot of the crap books i have I just gave them back to the library for 10 bucks, haha, like those intro to eng books, or english and whatever</p>

13

<p>^ Hey, I told him to keep it if it was any good.</p>

14

<p>I guess I am just drawing off of my experience of never needing my Calc book again after I finished Calc… ever. I reference my fluids books a ton, my signals processing book a little bit, and I wish I had saved my solid mechanics book for reviewing for the qualifying exam, but other than that I will never use it again.</p>

15

<p>I guess it just depends on your preference of using online sites or textbooks as reference material. I like the books, already got them tabbed and w/notes, I am just old fashioned</p>

<p>Even if I have a book that has all the stuff the other one has, like my hvac and heat transfer book, i still keep em both, I just like them. Wiki does nothing for me : )</p>

16

<p>I think you are misunderstanding me. I haven’t had a need to go back and look at a calculus book or resource of any kind other than things like a table of trig derivatives because I can never remember things like arc-tangent. Calculus is pretty much part of my daily routine and has been ever since I took it. I really just don’t have a need to go and look stuff up ever. It is second nature to me and pretty much everyone I work with.</p>

17

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<p>That’s not old fashioned. When you are in Junior or Senior year engineering, it is very hard to find reliable online sources of some of the topics you are learning in class. Look at any professor these days, most will have books from when they were an undergrad, even the younger profs. bonehead isn’t saying to get rid of all of your books, he’s just saying to get rid of the basic ones. Many engineering books will even have review sections in them to brush up on calculus topics that may be rusty… I know my aerodynamics book does. </p>

<p>Save the money, get rid of the basic books.</p>