It contains a discussion of matrices in the chapter on solving equations and dot products (but not cross products). pdf file texts, and the authors made use of it, including deep topics like rotated conics. Had this been a hard copy text, students would complain about its length (over 1000 pages). It assumes some algebra skills, the first five chapters will go too quickly for a student that needs a comprehensive college algebra course, but the pace is appropriate for a two semester course designed to get students ready for calculus. The book is thorough in its treatment of topics. Reviewed by Mike Weimerskirch, Lower Division Coordinator, University of Minnesota on 7/15/14 It took some extra work on the part of my department to get everyone on board, but we're still using the text in our sections of precalculus after five years, which makes me rate this book quite highly. I enjoyed the book and my students responded to it positively (it replaced a text that had cost at the time $306 for a one semester course). I didn't see anything that was culturally insensitive and examples tend not use humans at all but instead Sasquatch, Fritzy the Fox, Chewbacca the Bunny, and other silly characters.Īs I noted above, I used the text for three semesters. PDF is easy to read and scales well at different resolutions. The material is presented in a logical fashion, though I personally rearranged and expanded the trigonometry section to match my personal pedagogical preference. The text is very modular with the latex files allowing one to present either the entire book, just algebra, and just trigonometry.Įach section itself is its own latex file, so one could extract any individual section easily for repurposing. I have no comment - the book is internally consistent mathematically and comically - the footnotes almost tell a brief story of Carl which is a fun touch in a math book. This isn't a bad thing, just worth noting for those considering adopting the text. New teachers of precalc also had trouble extracting a 16 week course from the 1000+ pages and needed specific guidance for what sections to cover, what to omit. Many students reported that it was too much much for them - the book is exhaustive - and they found the presentation in the sections too verbose(!) (I personally disagree, but I'm not the student.). That said, I taught with this book for three semesters and advocated its use for our department for a number of years. The text is very clear for someone who is well-prepared for the material. The footnotes add a fun element to the text but in a way that shouldn't wear out over time. The material has fun "weird dad" style of jokes with exercises involving Sasquatch, for example. The content is standard pre-calculus topics from algebra and trig. I didn't notice any glaring errors in the content. This book covers everything one would want to cover in a precalculus course though with more emphasis on the algebra topics rather than trigonometry. Reviewed by John Hammond, Senior Educator, Wichita State University on 10/14/21
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