No bullshit guide to math and physics

I teach advanced placement math, including to High School students interested in Computational Mathematics (Boolean, combinatoric, sequential logic, matrix calculus, etc.). This book and Glendinning's wonderful all-topic overview of advanced math ( Math in Minutes: 200 Key Concepts Explained In An Instant (Knowledge in a Flash) ) are my best "go to" texts for both orienting and refreshing students, and giving a taste for how the concepts apply to advanced topics. Some reviewers ding this book for either the author's swearing or political jokes. Well, I agree that if you're sensitive about your students being exposed to mild profanity, you probably wouldn't buy a book with BS in the title anyway. I'm with those reviewers and wish the author had stuck to his area of genius-- making math understandable, but the content is SO good that one can ignore this and a couple other deficits. The book is not as much math and physics as calculus and physics. It does give some very well explained intro materials on algebra and geometry, in the context of how calculus applies to motion and physics. The author is an astonishingly intuitive teacher, showing with many problem examples how the equations really model the problem components, in a really practical way. By intuitive, I mean this (my own example, not from the book): If you run at 2 miles an hour, you're obviously running a 30 minute mile. 3 miles an hour would be a 20 minute mile (3 20's in 60). 4 miles an hour a 15 minute mile. Question: does this series converge on an equality (minute mile = mph), and if so, where? The answer is where intuitive comes in: YES, the convergence is at the square root of 60, which answers the question of which two numbers when multiplied equally give the INDEX of the problem, or 60. the answer is 7.7459666... as where the minute mile equals the miles per hour. The INTUITIVE part of the problem is that it illustrates that a square root is more than just the diagonal (sqrt 2) of a unit square, it also is a practical tool used often with indexing to balance equations. Today, the older practice of solving equations at a simple level with substitution and balancing has been replaced with functional inverses, and indeed, in the author's "background chapter" does exactly that, giving a wonderfully intuitive look at, for example, why using functional inverses throws log solutions into equations in the exponents, a pretty advanced topic! The author is dead wrong when he says that if you can solve x squared minus 4=45 you can skip the chapter, there is WAY more in the chapter of value even if you have that rudimentary skill. The book continuously applies calculus to physics problems, with great examples and many outstanding exercises. If you never really "got" calculus as slope finding or areas under curves, this gives the "intuitive" motion stopping ability of the techniques in a much more intelligible way. Sure, you get the traditional limits stuff, but the APPLICATIONS he gives are the real gold here. Highly recommended as a refresher, self teacher, and for AP High School or beginning undergrad science students as prep for advanced classes. The author's stated objective (and his strong feelings reflected in the swearing) is to present a less expensive volume that does a lot more than the rip off texts that charge $200 and are "padded" with BS to increase the price. In my opinion, if you can get over the idiosyncrasies common to self publishing, he accomplishes this admirably.

This book was great for helping fill in any gaps that were missed by lectures. I used this book religiously throughout Calc 1 and Calc 2 in college. Highly recommend it for any students that are struggling with those classes! I still go through it even after graduating as a reference when working on video game programming.

Okay, so I just got this book not too long ago and have read through quite a bit of it. First off, I have to say, Mr. Ivan Savov is a genius. This book is clear and concise. It cuts straight to the point without trying to make things complicated; nor does the writer speak to you like you're to have this natural understanding as to what everything is. It is truly a "no bulls***" text. I would recommend this as a supplemental book to any kind of text that a first year Calculus/Physics student would be taking. I could even go as far as to say that this book works as a wonderful self-teaching text. Aside from all of these wonderful technical aspects, my jaw was and still is dropped with the amazing hidden messages within this book. In between all of the learning, Ivan touches base on the importance and value of the tools being presented within this text. Whatever it is you decide to use these tools for is entirely up to you. All in all, this book definitely deserves a 5 out of 5 stars. My only regret is that I wish I could meet Ivan Savov to shake his hand.

If you had asked me before 2023, I would have said this is not a beginner friendly book. It assumes prior knowledge and was meant for those that "forgot" Math or became "rusty" in it, but not studying it for the first time. In that sense, for people who did Math in school and/or college, this is a great book; even if you flunked the subject, slept through the class, and absorbed < 5% of the material taught - this book will help you become decent at Math (albeit with some extra effort from your side beyond this book). Now, in 2025, things have changed because of ChatGPT, which makes this book super awesome AND also mostly beginner friendly! Why? Because, anytime the book explains a concept insufficiently, you can simply ask ChatGPT to explain it further! The other great thing is that ChatGPT can give you endless practice questions to fortify your concepts. For example, in Chapter 1, for inverse functions, I did about 25 extra questions on ChatGPT. So, if ChatGPT can explain everything, then why do you need this book? Because, its structured beautifully. You can't just jump into Math from a random point. You need to build one concept upon the next, and this book is structured well in that regard.

You can think of every problem it’s I here in this book

I have been out of undergrad for a few years and now starting a graduate program in STEM. I bought this book to get up to speed before I start my program and its been awesome. Some of the concepts need better/clearer explanations and sometimes there is fluff in the content, but overall, great guide to get back into mathematics. Would recommend!

This is essentially a condensed desk reference for basic HS/college math & physics topics. If I still had (I don't) and decided to organize, print & bind all my old HS/college math and physics notes, the result would be something like this. Seems good if you're looking to refresh concepts you've previously learned, or to quickly reference topics from a class. Not sure yet how well it works for introducing a totally new concept to someone who's unfamiliar with it. It seems a bit light on conceptual details and "first principles", and mostly just says what stuff is by definition. For example, it might jump from 1 form of a polynomial to its factors w/o explaining that step - you're just supposed to recognize that's what happened and know what it did. The text & examples are ok so far - some hit & miss. The appendix in the back is a nice quick reference - if you've forgotten the "Big G" gravitational constant, or what a "Newton" or the speed of light are (and you actually have some reason to care), then this is a handy place to look it up. Of course, you could just as easily Google most of what's in here and get a similar response. The font is rather tiny, especially in the graphs & illustrations, making them a bit hard to read. This was "printed on demand" but the paper quality is ok. The cover of mine showed up a little bent, but overall this will be fine to sit on a shelf until I need to look up some math or physics thing I've forgotten how to do, or have kids old enough to want to know those things. Not so much a "read it cover to cover" kind of book, as far as I can tell so far. I also have to say I love the author's perspective on getting rid of overpriced & deliberately confusing/crappy textbooks! This purchase was worth it if only to support that mission. I got this one kind of on a whim along w/the "Linear Algebra" title that I originally wanted. College textbooks on these topics would cost $100s for pretty much the same information, so in that regard this is a better purchase.

I'm working on an engineering degree and this book has demystified the introductory math and physics concepts and skill required to even get started in that career field. I thought that the math and physics was just going to be too much and I should try something different. Before I gave up on it, I did some searching online for books that could help break down math and physics in more direct and simplified ways, and this book was suggested. I have a hard rule for only buying books with a 70% 5-Star Rating, and this book met the criteria. The second and third order effects of having bought, read, and worked the problems in this book are remarkable. I'd never imagined I could learn calculus or understand mechanics but now they are firm foundations in my academic back ground. If you're looking for a great book to improve you year one college math and physics skills regardless of where you're at in those subjects, and how you intend to use the skills, this book is for you. Solid 5-Stars.

I am a mature PhD student trying to teach myself calculus and linear algebra. In that pursuit I have spent nearly 2 years and over $1,000 on textbooks. Ivan Savov takes the material and explains it clearly, intuitively, and enjoyably. I found myself actually looking forward to reading this book in the evenings. The mix of text, illustrations, example questions, and practice questions is just right. The book moves at a near perfect pace. Fast enough to feel like I'm making progress, but some really 'meaty' pages and proofs. I am extremely happy with this book.

I did a maths degree some time ago and I was quite fortunate that there were a few physics modules on offer which is quite unusual in maths degrees I think. Anyway I'm giving this book 5 stars. I haven't had a chance to go through it in detail but I like the principle of it. There isn't as much emphasis on proof as there is an maths textbook but there are some proofs scattered about. The book goes through some fundamental maths and explores calculus and mechanics and the interplay between them. It's an interesting book if you're interested in these subjects. I can't comment on whether there are any errors as I have only skimmed through it. My only criticisms are that sometimes diagrams are a bit faint and sometimes he randomly hand draws a diagram which is not in keeping with the rest of the book. These are only minor things. The only other thing is sometimes he decides to throw in some supposedly humorous comments about not using your skills to help money making corporations or not drinking too much on a night out. Again only a minor thing but he should have stuck to the subject of the book in my opinion.

I hope there’re many books for this writer

Good .

Excellent book, concepts are well explained and illustrated. I like the style and the method, it suits my way of learning.