Skip to main content

Chapter 2 Introduction: Some Advice on Problem Solving

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.
Amelia Earhart
 1 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart
(1897—1937)
You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing.
Renè Descartes
 2 
https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Descartes/
(1596–1650)
Our purpose here is to give you our very best advice on how to succeed in this course and a realistic impression of the level of difficulty of the course material. Please read this carefully and take our advice. We know what we are talking about. Believe us.
Because the topic we will be studying is called Calculus there is a strong tendency to assume that only the concepts and techniques of Calculus are needed to solve the problems you will encounter in this course. That is not true. You will need all of the mathematics you know. And probably more. Really.