Laurence D. Hoffmann, Salomon Smith Barney
Gerald L. Bradley, Claremont McKenna College

Revising a book that is going into a seventh edition can be a daunting task. After all, how much change should authors make to a book that has been used by thousands of students over a period of 20 years? Rather than answer that question solely by ourselves, we asked both users of Hoffmann/Bradley and users of other textbooks for their opinions about what types of changes we should make in the seventh edition of this textbook. The changes we made in this edition are a direct result of a consensus of a large panel of selected reviewers.

Overwhelmingly, the review panel told us that we should focus on making our textbook more accessible to the student. They favored our clear, concise explanations and our excellent exercises, but wanted us to provide some more motivating examples to help students make the connection between calculus and the world around us. There was also a clear indication that previous editions of our textbook covered too many topics that are not essential to most applied calculus courses around the country.

This text is written for students preparing for a career in business, economics, psychology, sociology, architecture, or the life, social, environmental, or physical sciences. It is assumed that these students have completed high school algebra. Our primary goal is to teach the techniques of differential and integral calculus that students are likely to encounter in undergraduate courses in their majors and in subsequent professional activities. The exposition is designed to provide a sound, intuitive understanding of the basic concepts of calculus without sacrificing mathematical accuracy. Thus, the main results are stated carefully and completely, and whenever possible, explanations are intuitive or geometric.

Although the essential style, applications orientation, and problem-solving approach of previous editions have been retained, there have been a number of significant and important changes in the seventh edition. Many of these changes have been made in response to user recommendations and to suggestions made by the revision review panel.