Analysis in examples and counterexamples. An introduction to the theory of real functions (Q998927)

This book cannot substitute well-known textbooks on Calculus and Real Analysis. The main aim of the author is to brighten and explain the most complicated notions and results of this course. To achieve this aim the author chooses a form of presentation of the above said notions and results through examples and counterexamples. It is common for any educational system that university students of the first year in mathematics have certain troubles in understanding some new (for them) ideas discussed in the course of Calculus and Analysis. Usually, an experienced lecturer tries to find certain recipes to make these ideas understandable. The usage of specially constructed examples and counterexamples is one of such recipes. Anyway, for lecturers in Analysis it is not always possible to present during the lectures their complete collection of examples and counterexamples. From this point of view it is very important for lecturers to have at their desks the book in which such things are carefully selected and discussed from several positions. The reviewed book by the well-known mathematician Jürgen Appell is just a book of such a type. Surely this work is of an extremely high importance for students, especially for those who try to understand the real meaning of the ideas of the Real Analysis. I would like to recommend this book for each mathematical library of German-speaking universities and for university professors all over the world. The book is organized as follows. In the Introduction the author formulates and explains the main principle of the book, as well as his credo as a teacher. The foreword contains a short discussion of certain pre-requisites of Real Analysis (Numbers, Induction, Sets and Mappings etc.) The main text is divided into 6 parts (Chapters), namely ``Continuous Functions'', ``Differentiable Functions'', ``Integrable Functions'', ``Strange or Amazing Functions'', ``Functions of Several Variables'', ``Higher-dimensional Integrals''. Each Chapter contains a portion of the corresponding lectures supplied by examples and counterexamples, which serve to explain and highlight the corresponding notions and results. At the end of each Chapter a collection of exercises for readers is presented. At the end of the book the author gather in ``A Supplement'' several useful facts from the related mathematical disciplines.