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I'm a math student. I work with both Spivak's and Apostol´s calculus books. There is a solutions manual for Spivak and there is a blog for Apostol Vol I. However, I haven't been able to find any solutions manual for Vol II. Does anybody know where you can get it or if it doesn't exist?

Thanks.

Pedro
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  • Please observe the new title and try to produce informative titles in the future. It really helps others when browsing the page. Regards, – Pedro Sep 03 '17 at 21:48
  • And you can definitely use the site to ask about problems, just make sure you think about them yourself for a decent amount of time before giving up! It is definitely more rewarding. Both textbooks are excellent choices. ;) – Pedro Sep 03 '17 at 21:48
  • @XanderHenderson While I agree to resist the sudden urge to look in the back of the book to the very utmost, not everyone is a student at university. Some of us have mathematics as a hobby and intellectual interest. Others would rather stay as far from University as possible. You could get tired of asking, for every problem you get stuck with, or even every problem you have solved but wish to verify, for guidance or a solution for what is portrayed as the correct solution. How does a buccaneer scholar, or rogue like Fermat once was, check his work if he's studying Apostol's Calc Vol II? – MaximusFastidiousIrreverence Sep 05 '17 at 22:12
  • @AmateurMathGuy But the point is that if you have a crutch (i.e. the solutions manual), then it is very easy to simply look up a solution when you get stuck, rather than try to struggle with it for a while and decide if it is really worth asking someone about. I would suggest that this is particularly relevant to people who are self-studying or approaching the problems as a hobby, because there is no penalty for struggling, other than time (i.e. they won't get a poor grade because of the struggle). – Xander Henderson Sep 05 '17 at 22:32
  • @XanderHenderson Indeed, so it's a matter of personal honor, personal restraint....rather than censorship. We agree that those who can exercise restraint would make the best students, whether or not they are in a formal setting. Yet if it comes to pass that they have paid the price with their exhaustion and frustration, then they've earned the right to clarification from one who is more accomplished in the respective field of study. If they can ask their question excellently, they've earned the right. Let's not punish a student for being resourceful for lack of a proctor's deep test bank. – MaximusFastidiousIrreverence Sep 05 '17 at 22:45
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    @XanderHenderson Let's not halt the progress of those individual hobbyists by hiding what would be beneficial to them to further their study. It's not for any person to judge whether or not they've given the utmost of their ability to solve a problem. – MaximusFastidiousIrreverence Sep 05 '17 at 22:47
  • @AmateurMathGuy Who is passing judgement? I have specifically argued (in the spirit of Lee) that a solutions manual doesn't benefit the hobbiest (or anyone else), and indeed, harms them. – Xander Henderson Sep 05 '17 at 22:51
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    @XanderHenderson it's not always the case that the proof in the back of the book wouldn't help you. In fact, generally, two ways to go about a problem hardly ever detracts from one's learning journey. You may arrive at your own proof to a problem, yet it's still valuable to look at another, whether it originates from the back of the book, or instructors manual, or not. – MaximusFastidiousIrreverence Sep 05 '17 at 23:00
  • Not religious but thank the gods there is non. solution manuals at that level are poison for learning and creativity. – Mittens Nov 07 '22 at 21:39

1 Answers1

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Since I think that this answers the question (though it is perhaps not the answer that was desired), and since it doesn't fit in a comment anyway, I am going to provide it as an answer.

When another MSE user asked for a solutions manual to Lee's Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, Lee himself responded with

Here's what I wrote in the preface to the second edition of Introduction to Smooth Manifolds:

I have deliberately not provided written solutions to any of the problems, either in the back of the book or on the Internet. In my experience, if written solutions to problems are available, even the most conscientious students find it very hard to resist the temptation to look at the solutions as soon as they get stuck. But it is exactly at that stage of being stuck that students learn most effectively, by struggling to get unstuck and eventually finding a path through the thicket. Reading someone else’s solution too early can give one a comforting, but ultimately misleading, sense of understanding. If you really feel you have run out of ideas, talk with an instructor, a fellow student, or one of the online mathematical discussion communities such as math.stackexchange.com. Even if someone else gives you a suggestion that turns out to be the key to getting unstuck, you will still learn much more from absorbing the suggestion and working out the details on your own than you would from reading someone else’s polished proof.

So if you have questions about specific problems, by all means ask them here. But posting a complete list of solutions will not be doing anyone a favor. Many instructors assign those problems as homework, and if complete solution sets become readily available, it makes the problems (and therefore the book) far less useful.

It's interesting to note that when I've written chapters with everything proved and few or no problems at the end, readers invariably ask me to provide some problems for them to work on. If you want problems with solutions already written down, they're already there -- the theorems and examples in the book! Just look at the statement of a theorem or the claims made in an example, close the book and try to prove the theorem on your own, and then go back and compare your work to the proof in the book. (And if you find a better proof that the one I wrote, please let me know about it!)

I think that this applies here as much as it did there.

In response to the counter-arugment "What about people who are self-studying, or for whom mathematics is just a hobby?", I think that the advice is even more relevant. If you are studying a subject for a class, you are rewarded and penalized for your work, hence there is a very strong incentive to get it done correctly under the pressure of a deadline. The hobbiest or self-studier is under no such pressure, and has the time to be "stuck" on difficult problems. There is no penalty for late work.

Moreover, if one is taking a class, then there is a ready-made structure for expanding upon and providing context for solutions to problems. This structure is not provided by a solutions manual, but can be found through conversation (e.g. on MSE). Such conversation is going to help one to understand the errors in their thinking or underlying assumptions much more readily than a solutions manual.

With regard to "checking one's work," I think it is worth pointing out that a solutions manual may not actually be all that useful. If you are really uncertain as to whether or not your proof is sound, a solutions manual may not help all that much, because the approach in the manual may be different from the approach of a given student. Again, the student is going to benefit more from conversation and interaction than from a solution written from a particular point of view at a particular point in time.

  • Just to provide a different perspective: as someone who is purely self-study (+fantastic input by Math S.E. users), Spivak's publication, for example, of a companion solution manual to 'Calculus' was absolutely essential to my growth within the larger field of mathematics (not necessarily within calculus, per se). Seeing an expert's approach to problems provided me with an immense collection of proof tactics. In fact, I'd argue that my capacity to comprehend proofs is a direct consequence of being exposed to a professional's approach. The exposition of chapters only provides so much. – S.C. Jan 16 '25 at 19:33