Calculus Made Easy

by Silvanus P. Thompson

Being a very-simplest introduction to those beautiful methods which are generally called by the terrifying names of the Differential Calculus and the Integral Calculus

Calculus Made Easy was published in 1910 under the initials F.R.S. and only later acknowledged by its author, the physicist Silvanus P. Thompson. Its epigraph, that what one fool can do another can, sets the tone. Thompson strips the differential and integral calculus down to what an engineer or a student actually needs, explains dx and dy as small bits of x and y, and works through slopes, maxima and minima, curvature, growth and decay, partial differentiation and the simplest differential equations with worked examples at every step. Professional mathematicians disapproved and generations of readers were grateful. It remains one of the clearest introductions ever written to a subject that is usually taught badly. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.