Material Detail

The readings on this web site were designed as part of the IT Multivariable Calculus and Vector Analysis course at the University of Minnesota. Students in this course are expected to read some of these documents (those marked with an asterisk * in the lecture list) before attending the lecture on the topic. The intent was to allow lecturers in the course spend more lecture time helping students understand and apply the material and less time on simply presenting the theory.

The remaining pages are a loosely organized collection of lecture notes, example problems, and other resources for students in the course. As no effort has been made to turn this into a comprehensive source of information on multivariable calculus and vector analysis, the coverage of different topics is uneven, with some important topics (such as Lagrange multipliers) missing altogether. Moreover, some of the readings not marked by asterisks assume content that is presented in lecture and not in the online readings. Nonetheless, I hope that what is available will be helpful for those trying to learn multivariable calculus and vector analysis.

One can view these readings more like a lecture than a textbook. They are not a replacement of a mathematics textbook because they don't cover all the theoretical details behind the main ideas. For the same reason, they should be easier to understand than a textbook. Many of the readings contain interactive graphics that I term concept visualization tools (or CVTs).

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