Introductory Calculus for the Natural Sciences

This textbook is intended for first-year college students in biology, chemistry, or physics. Its most distinctive feature is the central role played by applications to the natural sciences. Considering that nowadays students have access to graphing calculators that can solve complicated integrals, little or no space has been devoted in the book to integrals that require subtle changes of variables. Rather, we choose to concentrate on the basic techniques of integration and stress the solution of applied problems, especially those that use real data. We envision a calculus course where students not only learn to calculate derivatives or solve integrals, but are also able to discuss the validity of a model and estimate parameters.