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this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2013

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44
Is there a modern day equivalent to "Advanced Calculus" by Woods? (self.math)
submitted 2 years ago by FrankAbagnaleSr
Richard Feynman, in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman", comments that this book gave him a
"different box of tools" for doing integrals, and that it made him famous for his integration skills
at MIT and Princeton.
I would be interested in learning more integration techniques, but the book doesn't seem to be on
sale for less than $200. The book also isn't in print, so all copies are used and very, very old (it
was published in '34).
Is there some other book that will teach me to be a integral-wizard?

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[]Whitesnowbird1 17 points 2 years ago
http://depositfiles.com/files/yklv7rmio
this should be the book you are looking for, in order to open the file you need to have a program
that can read .djvu files, I just use dj view. Hope this helps

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[]scientologist2 2 points 2 years ago

related texts at Archive.org:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=calculus%20woods

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[]FrankAbagnaleSr[S] 1 point 2 years ago

This is great! Thank you.

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[]arjunkcProbability 8 points 2 years ago

The people on r/math are quite cruel to each other...

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[]dp01n0m1903 5 points 2 years ago

You can find a copy online at libgen.info. They also have Wood's "Elementary Calculus".

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[]GilbertKeith 2 points 2 years ago

It was probably relevant before computers, why would one want to do exact integrals by hand
today?

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[]BobRedshirt 35 points 2 years ago

Everyone needs a hobby.

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[]smilingmonk 7 points 2 years ago

That's a good question, and one I haven't found a satisfactory answer for yet. Here are some
reasons that I've thought of, at least:

Who designed computers, and the software to compute integrals? You have to know what
you're automating before you automate it.

Being able to do complex integrals by hand/in your head is a skill that reinforces other
skills relevant to general problem solving. One could argue that getting good at integrals
teaches a certain approach to problem-solving, namely: learn to use a box of tools very

well, and then when faced with a new problem, try using your tools until you find one
that works.

What if you don't have access to a computer? I believe the astronauts on Apollo 13 had to
do some computations (by hand) to sort out their reentry. What if the power goes out in
the modern day?

I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on this question, since I struggle with it myself as a
calculus instructor (currently a graduate TA).

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[]surement 1 point 2 years ago

While I agree with your general idea, the third point you make is really a stretch. I can imagine
pretty much every skill one could learn to be more useful than this in case the power goes out in
the modern day.
Relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgOp-nz3lHg
:)

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[]ultimate_boss 7 points 2 years ago

Numerical methods for integrals and ODEs can give you a solution in a particular case
(assuming your system isn't pathological), but tell you virtually nothing about the general
behaviour your system is capable of exhibiting. For one thing, numerical methods require each
parameter in the problem to be assigned a specific numerical value. For another thing, some
systems can exhibit completely different kinds of behaviour depending on initial conditions.
The "feed it into the computer" method is not the magic bullet many people believe it is.

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[]trickyben2 2 points 2 years ago

Handing the problem to a computer doesn't necessarily mean using a numerical method (it may
have at one point in history, but not anymore). A number of software packages exist (computer
algebra systems) which will solve problems analytically for you. My preferred package is
Mathematica. You can see a lot of the basic mathematica functionality at wolfram alpha - as a
trivial example, putting in "integral of x" is interpreted as you would intuitively interpret it, and
returns "1/2 x2 +constant"- as you can see here

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[]ultimate_boss 1 point 2 years ago

"integral of 1 / sqrt(E + cos(omega*x))"
Do you see the issue here?

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[]infrikinfix 3 points 2 years ago

Is there a closed form for that? Can you end up with something without an elliptic integral or
some other special function?

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[]trickyben2 2 points 2 years ago

I'm not personally acquainted with the elliptic integral of the first kind (which is what alpha and
mathematica give the answer in terms of) but I don't really see the problem here- I'm not
claiming a CAS can magically give you a neat analytic solution to every problem (because many
problems don't have neat analytic solutions), but I'm saying that a CAS will typically give you as
good an analytic result as you can get by hand, much more quickly and without the risk of dumb
error. Unless you're claiming the integral you asked for does indeed have a simple analytic
solution? (In which case, I'd be interested to see it)

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[]ultimate_boss 1 point 2 years ago

This was a poor example then, since Alpha doesn't give me as detailed an answer as you're
getting from Mathematica.
Symbolic tools are very useful for taking the drudge work out of integration, I'm not denying
that. But GilbertKeith above was implying that it is unnecessary to learn symbolic methods for
manipulating integrals in the computer age. I disagree. With computer methods in general, there
are many situations where a computer can give you a particular solution to a problem, but that
doesn't help you if you want to understand, qualitatively, how a system might respond in any
given situation.
Maybe it's because my degree is in mathematics rather than in engineering or physics, but I've
rarely been called on to "evaluate an integral" as such; usually I was asked to do things like
establish upper or lower limits for integrals (using the Cauchy-Swartz inequality, etc), introduce
variable transformations, examine the asymptotic behaviour of the integrand, etc. Now I'm
studying systems of nonlinear differential equations for my masters degree, where the whole
point of the course is that computers simply cannot tell you what you want to know about a
system.

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[]trickyben2 1 point 2 years ago

This was a poor example then, since Alpha doesn't give me as detailed an answer as you're
getting from Mathematica.
Alpha actually gave me more information on this particular problem (though mathematica is
generally superior, since it doesn't time out.) In the bottom left of the answer box it says "F(x|m)
is the elliptic integral of the first kind" and provides links to documentation, properties, and the
definition of the function. If I wanted to, I could learn all about that function by following the
links.
Addressing your comments about not "evaluating an integral". A CAS can do a hell of a lot more
than evaluate integrals. Although it certainly can't do everything a well-studied professional
mathematician can (and sometimes you have to hold its hand a little, by switching functions out
that it doesn't like for identical functions in a form it likes), most of what you mentioned can be
done in mathematica. Variable transformations are simple with the replacement operator,
examining asymptotic behavior can be done with the limit function. You can also use reduce to
simplify systems of equations and inequalities into a "solved" form (this is the one I've had to do
the most hand-holding on- "reduce" is still an imperfect function.) I've never had to use the
cauchy-swartz inequality myself, but it wouldn't surprise me if there wasn't a way to use it in
mathematica (at least for special cases.)

Now I'm studying systems of nonlinear differential equations for my masters degree, where the
whole point of the course is that computers simply cannot tell you what you want to know about
a system.
That's great, and I can certainly believe that even advanced CAS software can't help out much
with some classes differential equations (otherwise they wouldn't be an area of intensive study).
However, the point of of CAS is to incorporates existing mathematical knowledge- presumably
those systems you're studying don't have a well defined procedure for generating solutions at this
time (if they do, why would you be studying them?). When such a procedure is completed (even
if just for a special case), some coder down at wolfram research can toss them into Mathematica,
and suddenly those unbelievably difficult systems of nonlinear differential equations can be
solved with a press of a button. So then the next guy who has to solve such a system doesn't have
to get a Master's degree to find an analytic solution.

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[]dbag22 6 points 2 years ago

Numerical evaluation of highly oscillatory integrals can take a lot of time to get a convergent
solution. Being able to solve these integrals analytically with asymptotic techniques will speed
up computations and provide insight into the physics.

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[]trickyben2 2 points 2 years ago

He didn't say anything about doing the integrals numerically- there are a number of computer
algebra systems that can find integrals analytically. Mathematica, for example, is a reasonably
popular choice for analytic methods.

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[]linkfoo 1 point 2 years ago

Because they're fun? They were my favorite part of calculus.

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[]FrankAbagnaleSr[S] 1 point 2 years ago

I am doing it for the learning, not for the application. I am still a novice when it comes to math
(still in high school!). Thanks for the comment though; I'll try not to get too carried away.

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[]abomb999 1 point 2 years ago

1) You need implement integration methods in a computer so you have to understand how they
work.
2) ? I don't know, it helps give you a sense for "mathematical" tactics? This second part may be
more hopeful because I'm not yet an advanced mathematician, maybe all that time integrating in
school is a waste of time and harmful to your later education.

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