I’m excited to share several updates to Active Calculus:
1. New 2018 edition of Active Calculus – single variable
The 2018 HTML version is now live at https://activecalculus.org/single/. The PDF will be posted in the near future on a new page at GVSU’s ScholarWorks site. And the 2018 edition will be available for purchase on Amazon soon as well. I will post here on the blog when each of these versions in other media are publicly available.
The major differences in the 2018 edition are:
+ improved, more concise prose. Kathy Yoshiwara of the AIM Editorial Board read and marked up the entire book. Her changes have made the text less verbose, more consistent, and easier to read. I’m deeply grateful for her work.
+ appendices with answers to all activities and non-WeBWorK exercises. See, for instance, https://activecalculus.org/single/solutions-1.html. These appendices are in the HTML edition and will appear in the electronic PDF, but will not be included in the print edition in order to keep the cost of bound copies as low as possible. Huge thanks to Rob Beezer (University of Puget Sound) for the added features in PreTeXt and production editor Mitch Keller (Morningside College) for helping make these features a reality.
+ minor errors reconciled. Thanks to everyone who has sent me an email or filled out the online feedback form to provide corrections and suggestions. Feedback on errors or ambiguities is always welcome.
+ updated Creative Commons license: CC-BY-SA. The prior license had “NC” included. If you are interested in the differences, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ for details.
2. New 2018 edition of Active Calculus – multivariable — now in HTML
My colleague Steve Schlicker has been hard at work converting the multivariable text to PreTeXt so that it could be published in HTML. He has concluded that project and you can see the result at https://activecalculus.org/multi/. Like the single variable text, the PDF and print versions are expected to be public within the next couple of weeks. I will post announcements here when they are available.
3. Updated landing page for activecalculus.org, with archive of past editions
At https://activecalculus.org/, you will find links to both the 2018 single and multivariable texts in HTML. When we have the PDF and print versions available, those respective links will appear there as well.
In addition, at the bottom of https://activecalculus.org/ you’ll find an archive of past editions (currently just the 2017 editions). Note particularly that the 2017 single variable text in HTML is available at https://activecalculus.org/single/2017/.
We will keep the earlier editions accessible for a minimum of several years. Faculty, be careful to direct your students to the version you’re using: if you used the single variable 2017 text for calculus 1 in the winter/spring semester of 2018, you may wish to continue using that for calculus 2 in the fall semester of 2018. Other than modest updates to the prose (which change pagination in the PDF & print versions) and the presence of the appendices of answers, there are no significant changes. If you are starting calculus 1 this fall, I recommend using the 2018 edition.
In the near future, I’ll post additional updates at this site regarding the PDF and print versions as they become public. I also have some new ancillary materials to share.
