Forseth Krystle Rose - Pre-Calculus For Dummies

Pre-Calculus For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2018955376

ISBN 978-1-119-50877-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-50879-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-50871-7 (ebk)

Welcome to Pre-Calculus For Dummies, a nondiscriminatory, equal-opportunity book. Youre welcome to participate whether you are just looking for a quick review or, instead, need some serious prep work before tackling calculus. You may be reading this book for a few perfectly great reasons. Maybe your algebra is a bit rusty, and you want a review that focuses on the material youll need for calculus. And then, perhaps your trigonometry preparation wasnt as thorough as you would have liked, and you want to get down-and-dirty with the basic topics. Regardless of why you opened up this book, youll find material that will help you navigate the path that is pre-calculus on the way to the road that is calculus.

You may also be wondering, Will I really need pre-calculus? The answer is yes, if youre seriously contemplating taking a calculus course or two. You want to have the basics down cold so you can concentrate on the wonderful topics youll be finding in calculus. And the concepts throughout this book are also used in many other real-world applications and mathematics arenas.

This book has one goal and one goal only to teach you the topics covered in pre-calculus in as painless a way as possible. Its presented in words you can relate to and contains figures and pictures to further advance your understanding.

This book is not necessarily meant to be read from beginning to end. Its structured in a way that you can flip to a particular chapter and get your needs met (this, that, or the other).

All vocabulary is mathematically correct and clear and explained when its special to the particular topic. Being precise about mathematical terms is important; it makes the explanation of the subject quicker and clearer, and it gets everyone thinking the same thing about the topic.

Pre-calculus can be a special math arena, but the material covered in pre-calculus comes from many different areas: algebra, geometry, trigonometry, analytic geometry, and so forth. What youll need from pre-calculus varies, depending on the calculus course or book youll be using next. Because it cant be predicted exactly what youll need to take away for the next book, youll find pretty much every concept that may be under consideration. Just use this book according to your particular needs.

As youre contemplating what to do with all the subject areas covered in this book, consider the two alternatives:

• Look up only what you need to know, when you need to know it. This book is handy for this technique. Use the index, the table of contents, or better yet, the quickie contents at a glance found in the very front of this book to find what you need.
• Start at the beginning and read through the book, chapter by chapter. This approach is a good way to tackle these subject areas because the topics sometimes build on previous ones. Even if youre a math whiz and you want to skim through a section that you feel you know, you may be reminded of something that you forgot. Its recommended that you start at the beginning and slowly working your way through the material. The more practice you have, the better.

It cant be assumed that just because some of us absolutely love math that you share the same enthusiasm for the subject. It can be assumed, however, that you opened this book for a reason: You need a refresher on the subject, need to learn it for the first time, are trying to relearn it for some future endeavor, or have to help someone else understand it at home. It can also be assumed that you have been exposed, at least in part, to many of the concepts found in this subject because pre-calculus really just takes geometry and Algebra II concepts to the next level.

It has to be assumed that youre willing to do some work. Although pre-calculus isnt the end-all to math courses out there, its still a higher level math course than some. Youre going to have to work a bit, but you knew that, didnt you? And youre looking forward to the challenge!