5 comments about Algebra Workbook For Dummies.

1. About 180 pages into it and I'm actually having fun!
   The example problems are great but the solutions at the end of the chapter are sometimes a bit confusing (but they clear themselves up if you chew the problem a little and remember what you're supposed to be learning in that given chapter).
   I've only found one typo in an answer so far (signs reversed).
   
   Learning a few things I never heard of before for example Pascal's Triangle.
   
   Skip around and focus on the weak areas. I'd buy it again.
   
   Bought it for a review before returning to college after a seven year break from school (if you can really call the military a break).



2. I recently ordered the Algebra for Dummies, as well as the workbook to go with it, for a friend who is trying to obtain a position with a company who is looking for someone with math skills in algebra.
   
   He is working out of state, so I had the books shipped to his address. Upon asking him if he thought these books would help him, he said they definitely would. His comment was that they were easy to understand, and although it has been 20+ years since he was in school, he thought he had a good chance at getting the job.
   
   Anything that I have ever ordered from Amazon has always come quickly, been the correct item, and I will certainly keep ordering things from them.



3. Material is perfect for becoming reacquainted with algebra. New titles, terms and methods for solutions of algebraic equations are presented and discussed fully and with a minimum of words. The Algebra II Workbook is necessary if you have been a long time absent from algebra. The material came on time and in perfect condition.
   
   I have never been disappointed in all my purchases from Amazon and their sellers.



4. It was a good choice, to help my nephew with his algbra.
   His in 8th grade and it makes algbra easier to understand
   HECK i may even use it.



5. Although the review content is well written, I would not purchase this book again. Some of the fractions are typed in bold and are of a decent size buy many of the fractions throughout are written in such small text that they are almost impossible to decipher - even with good vision and bright light!

No comments about Intermediate Algebra (Bittinger Developmental Mathematics Series).

5 comments about Contemporary Abstract Algebra.

1. If you are looking for a rigorous step in abstract algebra this is probably not the book you want. If you are taking a fairly elementary one semester undergrad course and will never see this subject again, it is great. The proofs are weak (compare to Hungerford - the intro NOT the grad text - or Dummit and Foote - which, admittedly is more advanced, but not that much). This subject (like topology and real analysis) tends to depend on where you are and what you want.



2. This book works great in conjunction with the book Contemporary Abstract Algebra. I'm an undergrad taking Group Theory and completely lost! But with this book, I use the answers to better understand what the question is asking. I think that's how the questions should be made in general: Give the students the answer and ask them how to get to it. Students would better understand what the question asks and the material in general. Anyway, I would recommend this book for any student using the book as a text.



3. The best intro ever, I have read many texts but this is a the most beautiful and the most fun! Trust me, buy it!



4. After high school algebra and geometry, most of the math we learn doesn't apply much to the every day world. So, when a college math book takes the time to show examples of real world applications, I appreciate it. It helps to ground the material. This is not the rigorous, concise, law-theorem-corollary-lemma-and-repeat kind of book one gets used to, but it was fun to read. I'd recommend reading this along with a traditional style algebra textbook.



5. Although this book may not be as rigorous as Hungerford, I still like this book. Actually, I prefer it over Hungerford. There are still proofs involved in the exercises. I don't understand why some reviews are bad for this book. I highly recommend it's use in an undergraduate Abstract Algebra class.

5 comments about Algebra and Trigonometry (3rd Edition).

1. 
   First off Robert Blitzer is a smart man but this book is poorly written.
   
   When going through some practice exercises i found that the difficulty kicked in right away, giving me no time to get used to the concept of the problem i was faced with. To add insult to injury some problems were hard to solve since they left blank on how to accomplish solving the task....
   
   I also felt his tendency to use excessive amount of word problems led me to belive this was wriiten for a master level college class.



2. I used this book for an accelerated Algebra/Trig class at the college level. I found this book to be one the best math books I have ever encountered. When examples are given in the text it goes step by step and for most, explanations of what is being done. Other texts that I've used have skipped steps and left you wondering how did they get from A to Z?
   
   I wasn't always able to make it to class, but the examples and explanations did not loose me and I was able to play catch up successfully on my own with this text. I can't say that about any other math text.
   
   I must agree with the other person who wrote a review and said it would sure be nice if Blitzer had a Calculus text (though Larson is a good Calc author). Calculus would have been a breeze with a Blitzer book instead of a stuggle (had to buy a Larson book to supplement by school's Calc book choice).



3. This book teaches a real understanding of the concepts, not just memorization or how to enter the data into a calculator. I am returning to college after a 27ish year hiatus, and needless to say, needed some brushing up.
   
   The first text that I attempted to use was given to me by a co-worker and omitted much of the understanding needed to progress.
   
   We, as a nation, need to LEARN again, not memorize, and this book actually teaches!
   
   Bravo!



4. First, I wouldn't say Blitzer's books are as great as hyped...a decent portion of explanation was wordy, convoluted and confusing. I mostly stopped reading the book and only took notes of the teacher's explanations.
   
   I have to disagree about exercise difficulty. Each chapter or section started with easier exercises which increased in difficulty. However, in the 2nd Edition there were quite a few errors in the answers to odd-numbered problems in the back of the book, so if you couldn't arrive at the same answer you wondered if you were really wrong or not! Had to wait until the next class to find out...bad!
   
   My HUGE GRIPE is our college makes a big deal of all teachers (with the exception of ever-changing technology/computer texts) using the same book...but WHAT'S THE POINT? Each book is designed to cover several courses so the textbook publishers can rake in BIG MONEY for their thick book. The next year, they add some different charts and change some problems so you can't get by on your old edition if the college goes to the next one...which the college ALWAYS does, for no benefit...regardless of the errors you must put up with, that are undoubtedly a result of the pressure to constantly "upgrade" the book.
   
   So, you buy a book that is SUPPOSED to cover at least 2 courses, you use less than half of it, then when you take the 2nd course, you have to RE-BUY IT!
   
   In addition, they now market books with CDs using the publisher's own online-course website instead of the schools...which you cannot access unless you buy the new-edition book with THEIR CD. The stupid college uses the publisher's online-course website even if the college's own online-course website is perfectly fine.
   
   So now I have to buy this stupid 3rd edition in addition to my 2nd edition, and I have to get the one with the CD. This is just the publisher's way of forcibly preventing people from recycling textbooks. If I am not allowed into the publisher's course website with a used CD, I am withdrawing from this college and transferring! I'm only at this college to take some courses required to transfer to a top college, anyway. I will GLADLY take them somewhere else!
   
   College deans pay attention...YOU DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO DEMAND COLLEGE STUDENTS WASTE THEIR HARD-EARNED MONEY MAKING TEXTBOOK MANUFACTURERS RICH...USE YOUR OWNED DARNED WEBSITES FOR ONLINE COURSES!



5. my first go at pre-calculus i had the most horrid and difficult to follow text book in the world, and quite naturally failed the class. this book of my second go at pre-calc has been one hundred times better. difficult concepts are not dumbed down but rather explained in a way that makes them seem easy, examples in the text are well laid out, explained completely and linked to problems in the excersises that are similar. the excersises themselves progress from the easiest form of a problem to the hardest so one builds on the previous. honestly, buy this book, you will not be disappointed.

No comments about Beginning Algebra (5th Edition) (The Martin-Gay Developmental Algebra Series (hardbacks)).

No comments about Calculus for Business, Economics, Life Sciences & Social Sciences (11th Edition).

1 comments about Intermediate Algebra for College Students (5th Edition) (The Blitzer Developmental Algebra Series).

1. Blitzers' step by step is very helpful but does not always use the best path to the solution. He could use more examples of different types of the same problem, ie. What occurs when using negetives on this problem? Great book, but with anything, could be better.

2 comments about College Algebra (4th Edition) (Dugopolski Series).

1. I used the second edition of this book, but I am sure that my
   opinion of the third edition would be just as complimentary.
   The author knows his audience. He writes in a clear and concise
   manner. The examples and illustrations are outstanding in their
   thoroughness and clarity. The most important thing about this
   book is that your are thoroughly prepared for your next course
   which is probably precalculus. The only thing I took exception
   to was that the book did not go far enough into the topics of
   exponential and logarithmic functions. The material that was
   presented was presented in a superior manner, it just did not
   go far enough. All in all if I were a school teacher, this is
   the book I would use for a college algebra course and sight
   unseen I would probably adopt his books on precalculus.



2. I got this book for my college math class as required for the course. I'm half way through so far and it's easy to digest. I would say that if one were to self-study, he or she may need additional sources to help them figure out some of the topics in some chapters due to the lack of examples. There are examples though, but just not enough to cover every type of variation in the chapters.
   
   I guess it would be up to instructors and teachers to fill in the rest. This book also has many little chunks of how to perform problems such as functions and graphing on graphing calculators. Depending on your instructor or teacher, this may or may not be used at all, but it does help to have the flexibility of training yourself to use a calculator for future courses.
   
   Oh and best of all, Thanks Amazon! I got this book brand new straight from Amazon at a very good price and it came in 3 days through the free shipping option.

5 comments about Applied Partial Differential Equations (4th Edition).

1. This book is alright I suppose. It's not the best, but not the worst. I hate how the book assumes you've worked out previous problems and tells you to recall a problem it worked out like a chapter back. However, for the most part the book is decent - I'm sure there are better books though.



2. chapter one is all it took for me. no worked out examples. chapter one explains the thoery and what is happening with the heat equation but the problems at the end of the chapter have answers which the text did not tell you how to get. either way, a partial differential equations class requires lots of studying but i recommend not using this book.



3. I'm an undergraduate mechanical engineering major pursuing a minor in mathematics. I used this book for a two course sequence and I can say that it has been invaluable in my job as a research assistant at my university's computational mechanics research center. It's helped me implement software for computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. (Note, I didn't design the algorithms, faculty and grad students took care of that, still, it's good to know what you're doing.)



4. This book succeeds at making PDEs accessible to a wide audience. As the title applies, it is extremely applied in flavour. Mathematics and mathematical physics students, given the choice, should look elsewhere.
   
   An overarching feature of the book is its mathematical simplicity - very much in the vein of modern introductory calculus texts. This book neglects to introduce any tools of mathematical analyis. As a result, it is accessible to students unfamiliar with analysis. Consequently, most theorems can only be stated, not proven. Now, the theory of Fourier series is advanced and its neglect is understandable. However, this text neglects to define even basic types of convergence (uniform, mean). As a result, Chapter 3, on Fourier series, is basically the presentation of a cookbook set of rules regarding operating on Fourier series. Chapter 5, on Sturm-Liouville theory, becomes a set of statements of the various theorems, with practical applications such as proving the positivity of eigenvalues of the heat equation and "showing" completeness of the eigenfunctions (though this isn't proved, just stated).
   
   Although the authors note their intent to show the connection of PDEs to physics, this book doesn't make a very good "mathematical physics" textbook, for several reasons. Among these is the above-mentioned neglect of discussions of convergence. The book is also neglects discussion of orthogonal polynomials or functions (Bessel and Legendre functions appear in Ch. 7, on higher-dimensional PDEs, but the treatment is cursory and not unified in a general discussion of orthogonal functions). Also, in many cases the book limits itself to real-valued functions, and uses awkward notation for complex conjugation, Hermitian conjugate, etc., in the rare cases these appear. There is negligible discussion of the use of contour integration or conformal mapping in the solution of PDEs - contour integrals are briefly introduced in Chapter 13 in the context of inverting the Laplace transform.
   
   Serious math and physics students will also be irritated by the exposition in this text. A chapter typically begins by considering a PDE, then introducing tools (solution of boundary value problems, Fourier series, orthogonality relationships) in an ad hoc manner. Personally, I found this somewhat irritating: it lacks brevity, elegance, and good organization. However, it does explain how to solve a given problem.
   
   On the other hand, the book does cover an interesting variety of topics, including Green's functions, Laplace transforms, and dispersive waves and nonlinear PDEs. These are of course introductory glances at these subjects.
   
   There is a brief chapter on numerical methods. I didn't look at this carefully, but it seems like a very sketch of how to solve PDEs numerically which would need to be supplemented. A brief section is devoted to the finite element method. The Crank-Nicholson scheme, so important in physics, receives a paragraph.
   
   Ultimately, I would recommend this book for those who need to learn about basic applied PDEs. Those with some background in analysis, or who need a deeper understanding of the subject, should seek a more rigorous and detailed exposition.



5. Says it all. Could use some more example but it's a good introduction to PDE

No comments about Algebra for College Students- 8th Edition (with Interactive Video Skillbuilder CD-ROM).