A Tour of the Calculus

By: David Berlinski

Narrated by: Dennis Holland

Were it not for the calculus, mathematicians would have no way to describe the acceleration of a motorcycle or the effect of gravity on thrown balls and distant planets, or to prove that a man could cross a room and eventually touch the opposite wall. Just how calculus makes these things possible and in doing so finds a correspondence between real numbers and the real world is the subject of this dazzling book by a writer of extraordinary clarity and stylistic brio. Even as he initiates us into the mysteries of real numbers, functions, and limits, Berlinski explores the furthest implications of his subject, revealing how the calculus reconciles the precision of numbers with the fluidity of the changing universe.

©1995 David Berlinski (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Becoming Calculus

Excellent narration. As a non mathematician nor graduate, I appreciated the historical follow through of all that would contribute and shape directly or indirectly todays calculus.

A Tour of The Calculus

Excellent book! Full of insight and knowledge! A great way to get introduced to calculus!

Calc explained for the rest of us!

As a college freshman I was advised not to take any college level mathematics because my math entry scores were so bad. I heeded the advice and took my natural science requirements in astronomy and geology. For 40 years I believed I did not understand mathematics until I heard David Berlinski on NPR and thought I might give this book a try.

In spite of my family telling me that I use things like algebra every day when I cook or crochet, it was hard to believe that I could understand complicated concepts of mathematics. Having completed this book I am proud to say I understood most of it, although I could not repeat it, and I'm thrilled to be able to participate in conversations were terms like derivative and functions are peppered through.

I look forward to the next book in the series with great anticipation. Thank you so much for making the calculus come to life for someone who does not consider themselves logical or mathematical but rather verbal and spatial.

Good, but not great for listening

The book was enjoyable, but I listened while also reading a paperback. There are some common mispronunciations that confused me even with the text in front of me. Subscripts were confused with exponents frequently. I really enjoyed the book, but I'm not sure how one would have grasped some of the functions without seeing them.

Absolutely fantastic for a math lover - The best really for listening

As a person naturally interested in mathematics this audio book is excellent. If you want an audio book that helps you to review calculus or to go along with learning calculus from a text you will not do any better than this audio. Of course if you are having a hard time learning calculus, listen to this book over and over. As someone who knows “the Calculus” well since I got my Bachelor of Science in math, I think this is a better tour than I realized could even be done in an audio form.
Calculus may appear boring at first before you understand it, but it becomes so beautiful and so useful to understanding science once you do.
I plan to listen to this over and over just to help me explain calculus better to others.
Also I read so some of the other less glowing reviews and obviously I disagree and only can say that it is true that the author is definitely verbose and is maybe a little bit of overly descriptive in some places, it is still simply an excellent alternative source for anyone studying calculus and also trying to work some problems. Great job I say to David Berlinski. I am in disbelief at some of the negative reviews I read after first posting my review so I added this last paragraph to counter the more critical reviews. It is so much easier to destroy than create.
Maybe people that don't understand it would have to listen more that once but I will listen more times just because it is so well done.