5 comments about Precalculus: Functions and Graphs (with CengageNOW Printed Access Card).

1. the speed @ which i received the book was great, the book was great in great condition too but i didn't get the correct edition.



2. Let me first tell you that I got an A in Intermediate Algebra and another A in trigonometry. This textbook is ridicuosly riddled and puzzled, I read the example, and tried to follow the hard complicated question in the example. And I can tell you from heart, it is hard. I m sure the other precalculus textbooks aren't like this. Because I did some problem in the Sullivan precalculus textbook, which was easy and fun to do! I don't care if this publisher or author makes the material hard. I just hope it teaches me step by step with easy sentence that anybody can understand. Good thing that I have the student manual, or else I don't know where I'll be. Please, as an A student, I advice you professors or student to not use this textbook. Thank you.



3. although my math skill is not the best, i have been pretty successful throughout my math courses, but this book just threw me off courses. It discusses alot of ireevelent topics, then jump into total new topics. Very confusing



4. I have studied numerous math books ranging from arithmetic to differential equations and I can say, without a doubt, that this book is terrible. This book has everything that is unneeded, including idiotic homework problems, esoteric explanations with long-winded overlycomplicated language. For instance, problem 50, page 290, show that the graph of f inverse is the reflection of the graph of f through the line y=x by verifying the following conditions. then it goes on to list three conditions. The conditions they list are just those used to define an inverse function. In other words they are asking the student to graph something using the information they gave them; how does that help the student, especially considering it was already shown earlier in the section? The math teachers I know had to present the sections out of their original order because the book is so hopelessly unorganized. One example is the fact that they gave the student a newtons law of cooling problem 2 sections before introducing it in the text; how stupid is that?I wish I could give this book a zero star rating.



5. I received a 96% grade in precalculus using this book. So why am I rating it so low? The book more or less forces you to buy the solutions manual. Basic concepts of the material are covered in the explanations preceding the homework problems in superfluous detail, yet harder concepts and ones that are key to tackling the homework are missing. Some of these concepts can be ascertained through reasoning, others cannot.
   
   Some sections have homework with problems where the tools needed to solve the problem are not even introduced until several sections later! I ran into this several times. I'm sorry, but being a mathematical supergenius that can do his own proofs for concepts that he has never been taught should not be a requirement for finishing the given problems! If I was that good at math there would be little need for this book. I'm the type of person who will sit there for hours before I give up on a problem- I HAVE to finish all the problems- so you can understand how upset this makes me.
   
   I finally had to give in and buy the solutions manual because there were a few selected problems that were 100% impossible without it. Some of the problems are very hard, which is fine, but when I do not have the tools needed to finish a problem, I have to just throw my hands in the air. It seems like some of the problems were written by lazy grad students who didn't bother to read the explanations to see what was covered, or switched problems from previous editions around to different sections without thinking. Either that or that authors are incompetant.
   
   To the guy who implied that you can't pass calculus if you are having trouble with this book, untrue! The calculus book i'm using right now is actually, dare I say it, EASIER than this precal book. There's a difference between hard and badly written. Stay away.....

2 comments about Can You Count to a Googol?.

1. My 5 year old son is fascinated by this book! He loves science and nature, and really enjoys all of the Robert Wells books we have (I plan to order the rest asap). The thing I appreciate most about this book is that my son doesn't even realize he's learning, and walks around talking about billions and trillions and googols in a far more sophisticated manner than I ever did as a 5 year old. Wells doesn't dumb things down and, like the original Magic School Bus series, crams a whole lot of factual information into an entertaining children's book. Terrific read for your child!



2. I read this book to my son and daughter when they were 6 and 4 years old. They were, at the time, obsessed with big numbers, like billions, trillions, and more. They were fascinated with the concept of the number One Google, and this book's fun and detailed visuals were the perfect "food" to feed their hunger for numbers. A must-read for exploring math with your curious children.

No comments about Algebra and Trigonometry with Analytic Geometry (11th Edition with CD-ROM).

5 comments about Speed Mathematics Simplified (Dover Science Books).

1. So why don't you buy this book, then? You will not be dissapointed. It covers addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Completely new algorithms for solving arithmetic problems. Everything you learned in school is wortless compared to those techniques. Of course, you must study them carefully. You will not be a genius after skimming this book on one day, but the one who study it carefully will be on he's way. The only reason it didn't get 5 starts is that there must be one left to "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" ;)



2. To find out that everything you were taught in school about arithmetic was the slow dumb way to do it is a slap in the face. If you can handle that and are willing to have and open mind about it, this is the book for you. I have to say the methods are very different from what you learned, but it still builds apon the knowledge you already have about basic math. You must work at it though, simply reading will not help much. However if you follow the instructions you will exponentially increase your speed and without having to think about it as much as your use to. I am not much of a math person and I found the results very surprising. Buy it, period.



3. but somewhat out of date. Stoddard attempts to apply abacus methods to mental calcualation. I found this book fun reading but a more practical book covering the same ground is Handley's SPEED MATHEMATICS.



4. This book should be used to teach children mathematics in our schools. The concepts are simple and clearly described.
   Unlike math i learned in grade school you only need to know addition up to 10 and the multiplication table to 9 times.
   It is the first unified speed math concept book that teaches a fast way to do mental calculations without memorizing a multitude of various rules for specific mathematical situations.
   After reading this, i have stopped searching for any further speed math books because i doubt any could compare.



5. Instead of providing a series of disjointed "speed techniques," Stoddard teaches a method of speed arithmetic that integrates the same principles throughout. In other words, the speed techniques you learn in addition will also be employed in subtraction, multiplication, and division. Stoddard's "no carry, no borrow" method is based upon the structure of the Japanese abacus called the Soroban along with making efficient use of the inherent ease of computing with 10. The methods Stoddard uses are historical and were first seen in print in the 12th century in a book about arithmetic written by the Indian mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara (1144-1185) entitled "Lilavati." The wonder and beauty of this method is its consistency (which is what mathematics is all about). Every arithmetic operation is approached the same way, a revolutionary (to some, that is) "left to right" procedure. One by-product of this consistency is that it lends itself to immediate estimates. Compare this ingenuity with the "hodge-podge" traditional way of teaching arithmetic and you will see marked productivity difference. I, as a math teacher, wish more students were taught this way. The simplicity of the methods, once mastered, generates an ease and accuracy of computation that is simply amazing to behold.

No comments about Study Guide for Stewart/Redlin/Watson's Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus, 5th.

5 comments about Precalculus Mathematics in a Nutshell: Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry.

1. By all means, get this book even if you've just recently taken geometry, algebra or trig. Not only is this a good refresher, but also a good reference book. Simmons' explanations and drawings are so precise, so logical, and so coherent that not only could I remember what I learned 9-13 years ago, but I found enjoyment in doing the problems. For the first time ever, I saw the point to geometry.
   
   Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book: "... even though very few people become surveyors or navigators, the students who study [trigonometry] books are expected to undertake many lengthy calculations about heights of flagpoles, the widths of rivers and the positions of ships at sea. The truth is that the primary importance of trigonometry lies in a comopletely different direction- 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. What matters most in the subject is not making computations about triangles, but grasping the trigonometric functions as indispensable tools in science, engineering and higher mathematics..."
   
   If it were possible, I'd rate this book six stars.



2. This short book seems like it is meant for high school students, but it is more suited for Ph.D's. The author perhaps has the right approach of removing the fluff and presenting the essentials, but it is executed horribly. It's biggest problem is it has little to no examples that help us understand what the author meant or that extend the material. The hand drawings are nice, but they are just window dressing. The problems at the end seem like they come out of a PhD dissertation. I.M. Gelfand's books might be better.



3. It is easy to appreciate the high praise that Simmons's book receives from most reviewers, and, it is also easy to understand some reviewers' displeasure with the fast pace and brevity of the author's treatment of the curriculum. Simmons says [Preface to my copy of the 1997 hardcover edition], "I have eliminated most of the repetitious and unnecessary material often included in precalculus mathematics textbooks. I have also tried to achieve the utmost brevity that will still permit students who are willing to work at it to understand the material. If I overstep the bounds here and there, and provide explanations that are too concentrated for clarity, I welcome suggestions from teachers and students for improvements that can be included in future editions."
   
   This is conceived as a 'brush up' for readers who have some years between themselves and their last math classes. A modest history and/or aptitude with mathematics is assumed, but not all notation or terminologies are explained when they first appear in the text; if you find this to be a problem, a decent dictionary should quickly resolve any questions.
   
   Simmons takes full advantage of the "picture's worth a thousand words" principle, providing many excellent drawings to help explain concepts presented in the sections on geometry and trigonometry. The reader can spend abundant time in this rather small book, if he/she wants to work through all of the problems in the exercises and appendices, or they can move through it a bit more quickly by proceeding selectively, jumping past problems that look less challenging and/or concepts that are already understood (there'll be plenty of work here even for those who skip many problems!). The book can also serve as a reference for those of us who do some kinds of calculations too infrequently to recall the formulae. The book may be maddening, it may be fun (it will probably be both), it adroitly fills an important niche (or two).



4. The structure and focus of this book can be summed up by the author's comments on page 92. Simmons laments the size of trigonometry books, noting that they contain "hundreds of pages of unnecessary padding, consisting mostly of obscure formalities and irrelevant digressions. This padding is like smog, or dust in the eyes - it makes it impossible for even bright students to gain any clear view of what the subject is about or what it is for." He then states, "This chapter is a slightly expanded version of my standard 50-minute lecture."
   The idea that one can impart all of trigonometry in one 50-minute lecture is absurd. Furthermore, the chapter on geometry is only thirty pages long and the chapter on algebra is sixty pages in length. This demonstrates that the emphasis should be on the nutshell in the title, because all that you get from this book is a small kernel of the broad expanse that is precalculus.
   For example, the topics covered in the algebra chapter are:
   
   *) The real line
   *) Integral and fractional exponents
   *) Polynomials and factoring
   *) Linear and quadratic equations
   *) Inequalities and absolute value
   *) The concept of a function
   *) Lines, circles and parabolas
   *) Logarithms
   *) Polynomial division
   *) Determinants and systems of linear equations
   *) Arithmetic and geometric progressions
   *) Permutations and combinations
   *) The binomial theorem
   *) Mathematical induction
   
   As you can see, this comes out to approximately four pages per topic. It is impossible to present anything other than the simplest of examples and explanations in so short a time. Such brevity is counterproductive, which is why I rank the book so low.



5. If you job or hobby requires occasional math, or you have kids in middle school or high school, this book is a must have. It contains all those formulas you were forced to learn as a kid, that you probably still have memorized, but maybe not.
   
   For some reason, searching for math online is still difficult. Probably because that Greek guy who came up with the formulas name is so hard to spell. I typically reach for google when I need something, but when it is math, I grab this book.

No comments about Elementary Algebra With Digital Video Companion, Bca Tutorial, and Infotrac.

5 comments about Arithmetic the Easy Way.

1. I bought the second edition of this book several years ago when our company (USWest) was closing departments and we knew we would have to start testing for job title changes. It was one of the most helpful purchases I have ever made! I retired, and now I'm going into real estate. Naturally the real estate classes (and the state test) have lots of math and math problems. As they say...what you don't use you lose!!! There were several of us in the classes who were having a difficult time with the math problems and formulas. This book was once again a life saver. At first glance one would think it's too simple...more for children than adults, but it isn't. Mr. Williams makes math super simple for any age!!!

   The first few chapters are basic math...addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, Roman numerals, etc.

   Chapters 6-8 are fractions...changing improper to mixed numbers...subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions...unlike denominators, etc.

   Chapters 10-13 cover decimals...comparing, rounding off, adding, subtracting, multiplying mixed decimals.

   Chapter 14 covers percents...changing percents to decimals, to fractions, and finding the percent of a number.

   Chapter 15 covers measurement.

   There are pre-tests to see if you need to study the chapter, word problems, practice examples, and practice tests after every section.

   I recommend this book for everyone...young people who find math difficult, as an invaluable aid for parents of school age children, for anyone who is making a career change and is faced with job testing, and for those...like myself...who have been out of school for years and need a brush up on math skills. The price is minimal!!!

   Thank you, Edward Williams, for writing this book. Thank you for the difference it has made it my life!!!




2. I work for a major corporation that requires employees who apply for other jobs within the company, to take and pass the "Universal Test Battery". A part of this exam is arithmetic, including addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and percentages. I am a 54 year old who has been using a calulator for 30+ years! This book is indeed a 'workbook' that reviews all arithmetic and clearly explains the problems and how to do them all the way to sucess!



3. I got this book to help my 5th grader who is weak at math. This book has been very helpful in getting her to understand and it also gives her extra practice. I like the test that go along with each section. I would recommend this book to anyone needing help in basic math.



4. This is the book that my daughter's tutor recommended. My daughter has a hard time remembering the steps to solve math problems. My tutor recommended this book vs. math worksheets because no matter how many worksheets my daughter does to practice, she will have a hard time remembering the steps. This book, on the other hand, gives examples that she can follow and refer back to. It makes her more independent because she can pull the book out and find the concept she's working on and see the steps outlined. I've reviewed and purchased dozens of math books and practice books, and this one is the best.



5. I am an idiot when it comeS to this type of math. I used to hate it and would have panic attackS in class when asked to go to the fronT of the class. Now, I'm the first one to rasing my hand! This book has changed my life lol. Its sounds cheesy but it's true. GET IT!

No comments about A Fair Bear Share (MathStart 2).

No comments about Essential Mathematics for Life: Book 3 : Percents and Proportions (Essential Mathematics for Life).