Notwithstanding its punchy title, Precalculus Made Difficult is a straightforward textbook that guides students from the Plains of Mathematical Nowhere to the base of Mt. Calculus in just 200 pages. The only mathematical prerequisites are arithmetic and a hazily-recalled past encounter with the rudiments of algebra. It is notable for its concision, style, and emphasis on building deep understanding and intuition. Seth Braver is the author of two other books on mathematics: Lobachevski Illuminated, which was won a major award (the Mathematical Association of America's Beckenbach Book Prize), as well as Full Frontal Calculus, which has not - but should.
Written by Beckenbach-Prize-winning author Seth Braver, this textbook is designed for a standard single-variable calculus class. It is distinguished by its concision, its use of infinitesimals (though limits are here, too), and the high quality of its exposition. The emphasis throughout is on deep intuition and computational facility.
ÒGeometry is a very beautiful subject whose qualities of elegance, order, and certainty have exerted a powerful attraction on the human mind for many centuries. . . Algebra's importance lies in the student's future. . . as essential preparation for the serious study of science, engineering, economics, or for more advanced types of mathematics. . . The primary importance of trigonometry is not in its applications to surveying and navigation, or in making computations about triangles, but rather in the mathematical description of vibrations, rotations, and periodic phenomena of all kinds, including light, sound, alternating currents, and the orbits of the planets around the sun.Ó In this brief, clearly written book, the essentials of geometry, algebra, and trigonometry are pulled together into three complementary and convenient small packages, providing an excellent preview and review for anyone who wishes to prepare to master calculus with a minimum of misunderstanding and wasted time and effort. Students and other readers will find here all they need to pull them through.
This book introduces the mathematics that supports advanced computer programming and the analysis of algorithms. The primary aim of its well-known authors is to provide a solid and relevant base of mathematical skills - the skills needed to solve complex problems, to evaluate horrendous sums, and to discover subtle patterns in data. It is an indispensable text and reference not only for computer scientists - the authors themselves rely heavily on it! - but for serious users of mathematics in virtually every discipline. Concrete Mathematics is a blending of CONtinuous and disCRETE mathematics. "More concretely," the authors explain, "it is the controlled manipulation of mathematical formulas, using a collection of techniques for solving problems." The subject matter is primarily an expansion of the Mathematical Preliminaries section in Knuth's classic Art of Computer Programming, but the style of presentation is more leisurely, and individual topics are covered more deeply. Several new topics have been added, and the most significant ideas have been traced to their historical roots. The book includes more than 500 exercises, divided into six categories. Complete answers are provided for all exercises, except research problems, making the book particularly valuable for self-study. Major topics include: Sums Recurrences Integer functions Elementary number theory Binomial coefficients Generating functions Discrete probability Asymptotic methods This second edition includes important new material about mechanical summation. In response to the widespread use of the first edition as a reference book, the bibliography and index have also been expanded, and additional nontrivial improvements can be found on almost every page. Readers will appreciate the informal style of Concrete Mathematics. Particularly enjoyable are the marginal graffiti contributed by students who have taken courses based on this material. The authors want to convey not only the importance of the techniques presented, but some of the fun in learning and using them.
Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson and Martin Gardner has long been the most popular calculus primer. This major revision of the classic math text makes the subject at hand still more comprehensible to readers of all levels. With a new introduction, three new chapters, modernized language and methods throughout, and an appendix of challenging and enjoyable practice problems, Calculus Made Easy has been thoroughly updated for the modern reader.
Kiss My Math meets A Tour of the Calculus Jennifer Ouellette never took math in college, mostly because she-like most people-assumed that she wouldn't need it in real life. But then the English-major-turned-award-winning-science-writer had a change of heart and decided to revisit the equations and formulas that had haunted her for years. The Calculus Diaries is the fun and fascinating account of her year spent confronting her math phobia head on. With wit and verve, Ouellette shows how she learned to apply calculus to everything from gas mileage to dieting, from the rides at Disneyland to shooting craps in Vegas-proving that even the mathematically challenged can learn the fundamentals of the universal language.
"Precalculus is intended for college-level precalculus students. Since precalculus courses vary from one institution to the next, we have attempted to meet the needs of as broad an audience as possible, including all of the content that might be covered in any particular course. The result is a comprehensive book that covers more ground than an instructor could likely cover in a typical one- or two-semester course; but instructors should find, almost without fail, that the topics they wish to include in their syllabus are covered in the text. Many chapters of OpenStax College Precalculus are suitable for other freshman and sophomore math courses such as College Algebra and Trigonometry; however, instructors of those courses might need to supplement or adjust the material. OpenStax will also be releasing College Algebra and Algebra and trigonometry titles tailored to the particular scope, sequence, and pedagogy of those courses."--Preface.
LOBACHEVSKY was the first man ever to publish a non-Euclidean geometry. Of the immortal essay now first appearing in English Gauss said, "The author has treated the matter with a master-hand and in the true geometer's spirit. I think I ought to call your attention to this book, whose perusal cannot fail to give you the most vivid pleasure." Clifford says, "It is quite simple, merely Euclid without the vicious assumption, but the way things come out of one another is quite lovely." * * * "What Vesalius was to Galen, what Copernicus was to Ptolemy, that was Lobachevsky to Euclid." Says Sylvester, "In Quaternions the example has been given of Algebra released from the yoke of the commutative principle of multiplication - an emancipation somewhat akin to Lobachevsky's of Geometry from Euclid's noted empirical axiom." Cayley says, "It is well known that Euclid's twelfth axiom, even in Playfair's form of it, has been considered as needing demonstration; and that Lobachevsky constructed a perfectly consistent theory, where- in this axiom was assumed not to hold good, or say a system of non- Euclidean plane geometry. There is a like system of non-Euclidean solid geometry." GEORGE BRUCE HALSTED. 2407 San Marcos Street, Austin, Texas. * * * *From the TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good," does not mean demonstrate everything. From nothing assumed, nothing can be proved. "Geometry without axioms," was a book which went through several editions, and still has historical value. But now a volume with such a title would, without opening it, be set down as simply the work of a paradoxer. The set of axioms far the most influential in the intellectual history of the world was put together in Egypt; but really it owed nothing to the Egyptian race, drew nothing from the boasted lore of Egypt's priests. The Papyrus of the Rhind, belonging to the British Museum, but given to the world by the erudition of a German Egyptologist, Eisenlohr, and a German historian of mathematics, Cantor, gives us more knowledge of the state of mathematics in ancient Egypt than all else previously accessible to the modern world. Its whole testimony con- firms with overwhelming force the position that Geometry as a science, strict and self-conscious deductive reasoning, was created by the subtle intellect of the same race whose bloom in art still overawes us in the Venus of Milo, the Apollo Belvidere, the Laocoon. In a geometry occur the most noted set of axioms, the geometry of Euclid, a pure Greek, professor at the University of Alexandria. Not only at its very birth did this typical product of the Greek genius assume sway as ruler in the pure sciences, not only does its first efflorescence carry us through the splendid days of Theon and Hypatia, but unlike the latter, fanatics cannot murder it; that dismal flood, the dark ages, cannot drown it. Like the phoenix of its native Egypt, it rises with the new birth of culture. An Anglo-Saxon, Adelard of Bath, finds it clothed in Arabic vestments in the land of the Alhambra. Then clothed in Latin, it and the new-born printing press confer honor on each other. Finally back again in its original Greek, it is published first in queenly Basel, then in stately Oxford. The latest edition in Greek is from Leipsic's learned presses.
This best selling author team explains concepts simply and clearly, without glossing over difficult points. Problem solving and mathematical modeling are introduced early and reinforced throughout, so that when students finish the course, they have a solid foundation in the principles of mathematical thinking. This comprehensive, evenly paced book provides complete coverage of the function concept and integrates substantial graphing calculator materials that help students develop insight into mathematical ideas. The authors’ attention to detail and clarity, as in James Stewart’s market-leading Calculus text, is what makes this text the market leader. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.
