Preface | MIT Calculus Revisited: Single Variable Calculus
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends Herb Gross as an unusually clear teacher whose explanations make calculus click for people who struggled elsewhere.
What it is
The preface to Herb Gross's MIT OpenCourseWare 'Calculus Revisited: Single Variable Calculus', an older black-and-white lecture series. It introduces his approach to teaching calculus from the basics.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec avinassh · 2018-10 · on “Calculus Made Easy (1910)”
This is amazing! The fonts are easy on eyes and page renders beautifully. If you are looking for vidoes, then check lectures by Herber Gross [0] on Youtube. These were recorded in 70s. They are in black & white, gives a feeling of watching some old beautifully shot movie. He goes into basics and gives you a taste of all derivations, by hand. Watch the first lecture by yourself [1] and you will immediately realise how good are these. On a similar note, any similar resources like the one submitted, but for Linear Algebra? I am aware of Gilbert Strang's book [2] and vidoes [3], but I find them advanced for a beginner. [0] - [LINK] [1] - [this video] [2] - [LINK] [3] - [LINK]
Strong rec mtreis86 · 2022-11 · on “Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click?”
I recently learned calculus from the Herb Gross series from 1974. The way he explains things just clicked, after numerous failed attempts to learn from other sources. [this video]
Recommends lunchladydoris · 2017-04 · on “Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]”
I just had a look at the first video in the first course on YouTube [0] and was delighted to see Herb Gross responding in the comments. Clearly this is a man who loves his subject and loves introducing it to others. [0] [this video]
Recommends jackdoe · 2025-08 · on “Death and What Comes Next (2002)”
Ignoring the moral question in the story, many people are satisfied by saying "haha funny, the cat is both dead and alive" and they just move on. Reading Pratchett for almost 30 years, it has fueled quite an interested in quantum mechanics in me, he subtly introduces QM teasers in almost every book I read. Particularly Mort. As I dropped out of highschool, I didnt have the luck to properly study physics, but in my 30s, I my existential crisis hit, as they say, a man dies twice, and the stupid half dead cat wouldn't leave me alone. And one night the omnipotent youtube algorithm recommended Susskind's lectures to me, then Feynman, Shankar, .. it just kept going. Now I watch and re-watch them b
Critical rofo1 · 2019-05 · on “The Beauty of Calculus [video]”
[this video] There are many, many ways to study calculus, so take this as a preference. For example, this wouldn't be my first choice. In general, I find the "Definition. Axiom. Theorem." approach very dry and just doesn't fit reality. Nobody ever discovered mathematics like this. One of the best books I've read is Gausses "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae" rather than any modern Theory of Numbers book. I've had more insight in sums manipulations (and various little tricks, some of them not even justified in modern mathematics) from Euler's letters than any other book on this subject. I don't know what happened in the meantime. It sure doesn't look like 18/19 century books were so dry like the ones to