Mastodawn

Blake C. Stacey Oct 3, 2023

Taking a break from the ... everything of everything ... to try my hand at an updated edition of *Calculus Made Easy*. Fortunately, there was a LaTeX transcription at @gutenberg_org, which I grabbed a while ago. (Their website has changed, so I'm no longer sure how to get the auxiliary files.) I've made one pass through for outdated terminology and notation:

https://www.sunclipse.org/wp-content/downloads/2023/10/revising.pdf

Next will be updating the examples that use pounds-shillings-pence currency.

Blake C. Stacey Oct 13, 2023

Working some more on my *Calculus Made Easy* updated edition. I think I'll just cut the "bang went saxpence" joke as too much of a 1914-ism.

Blake C. Stacey Oct 13, 2023

The one thing in Thompson's presentation that I didn't particularly like is how he introduces derivatives of trig functions. It presumes that the reader has a lot of trig identities in their back pocket, and it makes a simplification that is hard to justify without going into limits, a topic that Thompson doesn't teach. I've tried my hand at a replacement that appeals to the way he *does* teach.

https://www.sunclipse.org/wp-content/downloads/2023/10/revising.pdf

Blake C. Stacey Oct 20, 2023

... Did a little more work on this:

https://www.sunclipse.org/wp-content/downloads/2023/10/revising.pdf

Blake C. Stacey Oct 21, 2023

... The *Calculus Made Easy* example about a coal-powered steamship is probably another I should just replace with something entirely new.

Rat Poison Oct 22, 2023

Blake C. Stacey

... Here is my de-archaized version of *Calculus Made Easy*, with the shillings and the obsolete names for things we now know to be polonium isotopes all fixed up:

https://www.sunclipse.org/wp-content/downloads/2023/10/revising.pdf

And here is how the LaTeX stands at the moment:

https://www.sunclipse.org/wp-content/downloads/2023/10/calculus-made-easy.tgz

Blake C. Stacey Oct 22, 2023

Here is my summary blog post about my *Calculus Made Easy* project and where it stands now:

https://www.sunclipse.org/?p=3194

#calculus #mathematics

Calculus Made Easy | Science After Sunclipse

Blake C. Stacey Oct 24, 2023

... So, I ordered myself a print-on-demand copy of my *Calculus Made Easy* revised edition. Price was a bit steep, since there's no economy of scale when the scale is ... one. I am curious to see how well it turns out. I might order more later to give away as gifts, etc.

Blake C. Stacey Oct 30, 2023

I made a book happen

Blake C. Stacey Nov 3, 2023

The source linked in my blog post now includes the cover images for printing my *Calculus Made Easy* update (in the .tgz file).

https://www.sunclipse.org/?p=3194

Calculus Made Easy | Science After Sunclipse

Blake C. Stacey Nov 8, 2023

Books!

Blake C. Stacey Dec 21, 2023

... There is something rather soothing about trying to adopt Silvanus P. Thompson's voice.

Blake C. Stacey Dec 22, 2023

As the picture upthread illustrates, I ordered ten paperback copies of my *Calculus Made Easy* updated edition from a print-on-demand service. I've now given them all away, one as a holiday gift and the other nine as bonus freebies at a friend's art show.

I should get serious about this and do another print run. Sadly, the local bookshop that used to offer POD stopped doing that. For this trial run, I used Lulu, for the sophisticated reason that I had an account there because of projects we did years and years ago. Cost per paperback: $8.40.

Blake C. Stacey Dec 22, 2023

... With that in mind, what do folks hereabouts recommend for going from PDF to printed books?

Blake C. Stacey Dec 22, 2023

... I kind of like the idea, as an art project, of somehow making copies of my revised *Calculus Made Easy* that look like they've been hiding in a library since 1914. This would obviously be just for entertainment value, not the primary form of the book I would like to make available. But I have happy memories of library basements.

whut Dec 23, 2023

@bstacey library stacks with a single desk at the end of each aisle, featuring a personal table lamp

mcc Dec 24, 2023

@bstacey don't forget minor marginalia making specific jokey references to 1920s British politics

Blake C. Stacey Jan 31, 2024

I have ordered more print-on-demand copies of *Calculus Made Easy* and will be giving them away (details of scheme yet to be decided).

Blake C. Stacey Mar 12, 2024

I have deemed the Lulu.com printing of my *Calculus Made Easy* revised edition to be good enough. So, I am making it available to order here at cost:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/silvanus-thompson-and-blake-stacey/calculus-made-easy-third-edition/paperback/product-84zdpvr.html

It is available electronically (PDF and LaTeX) via my blog:

https://www.sunclipse.org/?p=3194

#mathematics #calculus

Calculus Made Easy: Third Edition

The classic 1914 text by Silvanus P. Thompson ("F. R. S."), updated and revised.

Lulu

unsponsor Feb 2, 2024

Bill Ricker Dec 22, 2023

@bstacey
What a great idea!

Sharanjit Paddam Nov 9, 2023

@bstacey this is awesome. Thank you!

Athena L.M.Dec 22, 2023

@bstacey can I buy one

Blake C. Stacey Dec 22, 2023

@alilly I've given the printed copies away, but the digital version is available on my blog: https://www.sunclipse.org/?p=3194

Calculus Made Easy | Science After Sunclipse

Athena L.M.Dec 22, 2023

@bstacey Do you recommend a printer?

Blake C. Stacey Dec 22, 2023

@alilly I've mostly lost track of what services there are; see here for what little I know:

https://icosahedron.website/@bstacey/111624892623289270

Blake C. Stacey (@[email protected])

As the picture upthread illustrates, I ordered ten paperback copies of my *Calculus Made Easy* updated edition from a print-on-demand service. I've now given them all away, one as a holiday gift and the other nine as bonus freebies at a friend's art show. I should get serious about this and do another print run. Sadly, the local bookshop that used to offer POD stopped doing that. For this trial run, I used Lulu, for the sophisticated reason that I had an account there because of projects we did years and years ago. Cost per paperback: $8.40.

Icosahedron

Peter N Lewis Nov 14, 2023

@bstacey I was just recommending Calculus Made Easy to a uni student a few days ago!

James Smith Oct 22, 2023

@bstacey Good work!

Here is the link to the PDF:

https://www.sunclipse.org/wp-content/downloads/2023/10/revising.pdf

James Smith Oct 22, 2023

@bstacey Some of the wording should never be thrown away...

BEING A VERY-SIMPLEST INTRODUCTION TO THOSE BEAUTIFUL METHODS OF RECKONING WHICH ARE GENERALLY CALLED BY THE
TERRIFYING NAMES OF THE
DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS AND THE INTEGRAL CALCULUS.

Perfect.

Tim Ricchuiti Oct 23, 2023

@bstacey fantastic work!

Blake C. Stacey Oct 23, 2023

@polymathematic Thank you.

[object Object]Oct 21, 2023

@bstacey reading through this is making me want to build a curriculum around this and similar books (*The Little Schemer* and its sequels come to mind as CS materials without unnecessary complication) for folks who are ready to learn what college only taught them by rote

Athena L.M.Oct 22, 2023

@bstacey When I set it for screen display and ran the LaTeX through pdfTeX 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.25 from TeX Live 2023 on Alpine it complained a lot and spat a bunch of copies of the word "footnote" on the first page but otherwise seemed to work fine? I'm confused.

Blake C. Stacey Oct 22, 2023

@alilly Huh. When compiling with 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 either for printing or for screen reading, I get a couple warning messages that say "Command \footnotesize invalid in math mode" but nothing unusual in the PDF itself.

Blake C. Stacey Oct 22, 2023

@alilly As noted upthread, I started with the LaTeX version from Project Gutenberg, rather than transcribing it myself, so there could well be peculiarities in the source that I'm unaware of.

Athena L.M.Oct 22, 2023

@bstacey Maybe I'm missing dependencies or something. I have a log file but can't upload it here.