A First Course in Analysis (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

The first course in Analysis, which follows calculus, along with other courses, such as differential equations and elementary linear algebra, in the curricu­ lum, presents special pedagogical challenges. There is a change of stress from computational manipulation to "proof. " Indeed, the course can become more a course in Logic than one in Analysis. Many students, caught short by a weak command of the means of mathematical discourse and unsure of what is expected of them, what "the game" is, suffer bouts of a kind of mental paralysis. This text attempts to address these problems in several ways: First, we have attempted to define "the game" as that of "inquiry," by using a form of exposition that begins with a question and proceeds to analyze, ultimately to answer it, bringing in definitions, arguments, conjectures, exam­ ples, etc. , as they arise naturally in the course of a narrative discussion of the question. (The true, historical narrative is too convoluted to serve for first explanations, so no attempt at historical accuracy has been made; our narra­ tives are completely contrived. ) Second, we have kept the logic informal, especially in the course of preliminary speculative discussions, where common sense and plausibility­ tempered by mild skepticism-serve to energize the inquiry.