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What are the prerequisites for going through Baby Rudin? Does one need calculus?

I was wondering if I will be able to read it soon; I know basic precalc/calc.

bob the pie
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    Try to read it and see how it goes; that's what I do. If it's way over my head, I can choose to struggle with it or go back and get more background before attempting again. – Eoin Jun 10 '15 at 01:45
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    I do not want to spend too much money; I wish to know if it's worth it for me. Thanks! – bob the pie Jun 10 '15 at 01:46
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    Thinking in terms of theorem/proof and rigorous mathematical thinking are the biggest prerequisites. Knowing calculus in the sense of AP Calculus ( ie. human calculator ) is not as important as knowing "why" we do calculus and what the goals are, eg. understanding functions by using linear approximations and averaging. – Callus - Reinstate Monica Jun 10 '15 at 01:47
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    As a side (I'm not sure if this is taboo?), there are probably previews online somewhere, if not the whole text. – Eoin Jun 10 '15 at 01:47
  • Okay. Thanks! (I don't think it's taboo as long as you don't put a link). – bob the pie Jun 10 '15 at 01:48
  • However, I'm still wondering if someone could directly respond to the question. – bob the pie Jun 10 '15 at 01:49
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    I think that's the best response to the question. Go try, read the first chapter, and see what you think. – davidlowryduda Jun 10 '15 at 02:03
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    Why is this getting downvoted to hell? – hjhjhj57 Jun 10 '15 at 02:05
  • In order to get anything out of Baby Rudin, you need a good understanding of formal mathematical language. In particular, you will need to understand basic set theory and logic. Without these, reading Rudin's book will probably not be informative. You should also be prepared to spend some time rewriting his results in your own language: Rudin is a great book, but the language is terse and requires some thought to understand it completely. Hope this helps! – User12345 Jun 10 '15 at 20:32
  • Back in my day at Texas A&M William R. Wade's Introduction to Analysis was used as prep for Baby Rudin. Professors seemed to differ on if they wanted to use Baby Rudin or Carother's Real Analysis. Often texts used in parallel can help a lot. – TurlocTheRed Nov 04 '21 at 19:48

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I'm currently going through Baby Rudin myself. So far, I've found it challenging in a good way, and haven't had problems understanding things, except for a couple of theorems whose proofs were a little to terse for my skill level. Gladly, I wasn't the only one who had this problem, and was able to find questions here asking for clarification of said proofs.

In my opinion, the most important prerequisite for Baby Rudin is a good understanding of logic and of how to derive knowledge from the axiomatic method, i.e., how to write and read proofs. You should know how to prove a conjunction, disjunction, implication and biconditional, how to use contrapositives, direct and indirect proofs and, of course, induction. I think knowing all this is extremely important if you want to understand the proofs and where they come from.

If you don't have a good grasp on how to prove things, I strongly recommend you read the first part of this Proof, Logic, and Conjecture: The Mathematician's Toolbox . It pertains to logic and how to write and understand proofs. It helped me tremendously.

Drarp
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enzo
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