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Calculus: Concepts and Methods by Ken Binmore; Joan Davies

Article  in  The Mathematical Gazette · January 2004

DOI: 10.2307/3620891

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Calculus: concepts and methods by Ken Binmore and Joan Davies. Pp. 554.
Price: 25.95. 2002 . ISBN 0 521 77541 8 paperback. CUP
‘Calculus: concepts and methods,’ the successor to Binmore’s ‘Calculus,’ is a
welcome addition to the ever increasing library of texts introducing the calculus of
several real variables. The book is carefully thought out and well written with its
target audience always in mind. Its great strengths are the natural, geometrically
motivated explanations of the theory, the clear and helpful illustrations and, partic-
ularly, the applications which are often taken from economics, rather than physics
or engineering.
The material covered is much as one would expect. The authors assume famil-
iarity with the calculus of functions of one real variable and with some aspects of
linear algebra, matrices and vectors. There are revision chapters devoted to these
topics, though the geometric aspects of vectors, in particular, are emphasised and
students may well find some of the details new. There is also a chapter on complex
numbers towards the end of the book, which may or may not be revision material
for students at this level.
The book then introduces scalar functions of several real variables, discussing the
gradient vector, the directional derivative and tangent planes. The development is
clear and easy to follow. There is a nice explanation of the relationship between
the directional derivative and the gradient vector and the idea that the gradient
vector points in the direction of maximum increase (the example of the swimmers
in the hot spring illustrates the point well), though it might have been interesting
to illustrate how to calculate the path of maximum increase from a given point as
well.
After a chapter on stationary points of functions of one or more variables (and
optimisation of functions of one variable), there is a brief chapter on vector valued
functions. Here derivatives of vector valued functions, the chain rule and Taylor
series for scalar valued functions of several real variables up to quadratic terms
are introduced. This material is developed just as far as is needed to discuss the
optimisation of scalar valued functions and the implicit function theorem, though
I would have liked to have seen some of the higher terms of the Taylor expan-
sion explicitly stated. Unconstrained and constrained optimisation of functions of
several real variables are covered in the next chapter. The book’s geometric ap-
proach works particularly well in the discussion of Lagrange multipliers, making
this initially somewhat mysterious technique seem quite natural.
There are three relatively short chapters on inverse functions, on implicit func-
tions and on differentials. These topics are conceptually more difficult than the rest
of the book but the explanation is clear and convincing, if not entirely rigourous.
Appropriately, for example, the discussion of local inverses of functions of one vari-
able and their differentiability is quite detailed, whilst the case for functions of
several real variables is then made essentially by analogy.
A reasonably detailed Rrevision of integration (including, usefully, power series
x
and how to differentiate a f (t) dt with respect to x) is followed by a chapter on
multiple integrals. The applications in these two chapters are mostly to statistics
and probability. The book ends with chapters on first order differential equations
(including some simple p.d.e.s) and linear differential and linear difference equa-
tions. Answers to some of the problems are provided along with a good index. A
teachers supplement is available.
1
2

In the preface, the authors clearly set out their stall. They have not written a
cook book, emphasising that mathematics is not just a list of definitions, theorems
and proofs, but an active pursuit and something of practical relevance in explaining
the world around us. They expect students to gain confidence and ability not
only through regular practice but by attempting appropriately difficult exercises.
I particularly liked their line: ‘You may think you understand the concepts, but
if you can’t do any of the exercises, then you don’t. You may think you don’t
understand the material, but if you can do most of the exercises, then you do.’
Either way, students are exhorted to try the exercises to find out.
As one would hope from a book in which the emphasis is on geometrical ex-
planation, the illustrations are excellent. Very rarely (the graph of tan x on page
240 is one instance), the computer generated plots are slightly jagged and might
have benefitted from a little tinkering. However, in general, the diagrams are ap-
propriate and well-drawn. They certainly help to explain the mathematics; the
3-dimensional representations of functions two variables are satisfying (whilst be-
ing fairly standard) and the explanation of multiple integrals is helped significantly
by the diagrams, as is discussion of contract curves. Somewhat unusually, perhaps,
there are plenty of diagrams in the solutions at the end of the book. The book
also has some nice typographical touches, for example the optional applications
and solutions to exercises are type set sans serif and so are easy to identify as one
flicks through the pages.
The examples, liberally sprinkled through the main text, and applications, at
the end of each chapter, are a high point of the book and often great fun. The
discussion of parabolic reflectors, for example, makes it clear why one might want
to study the potentially rather dry topic of conic sections, their foci and so on.
And did you know that elliptical sound mirrors are used in medical physics to focus
ultrasound onto kidney stones? Besides a number of physical examples, there are
numerous applications of the material to economic theory. Having taught a calculus
module myself for the last few years, I found the application of the gradient vector
to indifference and contract curves and the use of Lagrange multipliers and the
implicit function theorem with the Cobb-Douglas production formula refreshing
after the more standard physical application (but do all the prices have to be in
$s?). The discussion of the pros and cons of the gambling habits of the ‘idle rich’ in
the chapter on difference equations is diverting and there is even a useful application
of saddle points to game theory.
As the authors state in the preface, attempting the exercises is a key part of
understanding the material. There are enough questions at varying levels of diffi-
culty to satisfy and challenge most students. Answers or brief solutions, many with
diagrams, are provided to what looks to be about half of them. There are some nice
exercises here. To pick just one, students are asked to match functions (though,
strictly, I don’t consider ‘(x + 2)2 + 2(y − 3)2 ’ to be a function) to plots and level
curves. A simple, obvious question that nevertheless not only tests understanding,
but enhances it.

Of course there are a number of points with which one might take issue. R2 is
defined to be the set of all 2×1 vectors (and R3 as the set of all 3×1 vectors) rather
than the set of all ordered pairs. Consequently, through out the book the authors
have to refer to points of R2 in the form (x, y)T so that, for example, fx (X, Y ) is
the partial derivative with respect to x ’evaluated at the point (X, Y )T .’ This does
 3

seem to me to be somewhat cumbersome and unnecessary (except in very specific

instances such as the manipulation of vector derivatives).
Chapter 11 is very good on double integrals, particularly in demonstrating how
to work out the range of integration. However, I would have liked to have seen
more examples of triple integrals, how to work out the range of integration in such
cases and, a discussion of cylindrical and polar coordinates.
Presumably as a result of their efforts to ‘reflect recent trends in pre-university
mathematics’ and to emphasis their view that mathematics is not just a list of
definitions and theorems, salient facts appear on a blue background but there are
no formally stated definitions or theorems. Given the target audience, it is probably
appropriate to opt for explanations rather than proofs. However, I believe that
some formality is a good thing and does not necessarily preclude the notion that
maths is something to be done rather than learnt. For example, the diagonal of a
square matrix is illustrated by a matrix with its diagonal highlighted, which makes
it entirely clear what the diagonal is, but I wonder what sort of answers one might
get if one asked for the definition of the diagonal or even the trace of a matrix.
A formally stated theorem might also have helped avoid a possible confusion in
Section 4.2, where we have the statement that ‘if f does have a global maximum
and f is differentiable, then the global maximum must be one of the local maxima.’
There is no error here, since the section is talking about functions defined R, though
this is only explicitly stated in the preceding section.
Overall, however, this is a well-written and interesting, though reasonably pricey,
text book, appropriate for courses in science and economics as well as mathematics,
that will amply repay hard work on the part of the student. It is well worth
considering as a recommended course text.
Oh, and one final oddity: there is an appendix listing the Greek letters used in
the text but only the Greek letters used in the text, so no , ζ or Λ. As students
frequently struggle to distinguish between and name, for example, φ and ψ, why
not list them all?

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