Preface Preface
As the title of the book suggests, our emphasis is on the real-life meaning of precalculus concepts. We want our students to master the basic concepts of precalculus while building a solid understanding of those concepts in practical contexts and the skills to apply mathematical tools to real-life processes.
To illustrate our approach, take for example the family of linear functions. When talking about linear functions, our emphasis is on the practical meaning and the units of the slope as well as on the units and the practical meaning of the horizontal and vertical intercepts. Such practical understanding is built through many applied examples and their careful analysis. We show how to use linear functions to model real-life processes which are described through tabulated data. At the same time, we try to ensure that students build the algebraic proficiency necessary to successfully work with linear functions.
We present all the main precalculus topics while stressing their practical meaning and their real-life applications. Those topics include:
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Functions, their graphs, and their numerical representation;
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Linear functions and their applications;
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Quadratic functions and quadratic equations;
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Algebra of exponential expressions, power functions, and their applications;
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Exponential and logarithmic functions, their algebraic properties and their rich variety of applications in the life sciences;
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Trigonometric functions and their applications to modeling periodic phenomena.
Our intended audience is primarily students in the life sciences and pharmacy. These students can be divided generally into two groups. The first group consists of students for whom this course is a terminal mathematics course, who wish to learn tools of before-calculus mathematics and to develop solid skills of applying those tools to real-life problems. The second group consists of students who plan to continue their study of mathematics in an applied calculus course.
