Reviews (1)

Excellent!
I used this book instead of listening to the teacher's lectures and I did really great in the class! This is a great book to use in class and study form it alone! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Pre-Calculus    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Textbooks    7. Mathematics / Pre-Calculus   

Reviews (8)

Symbolic Progress
This book is a history of algebra for the mathematically inclined.For the rest of us, it is an amusing collection of the personalities of the algebraists who have graced our world.Though I have an undergraduate degree in mathematics, and have had an interest in mathematics ever since, I found some of this kind of heavy going.Naturally I just skipped some of the more arcane stuff to get to the good parts.
Entertaining and Educating
This was a great read. I found that the history portion was entertaining enough to keep me reading even when some of the math slowed me down. It seems the perfect combination of Math and History. I think that while the mathematical topics covered are given a brief introduction before entering each new section, I found them to be a challenge to follow in the areas of study that I have little expreience in. (I have only a Mathematics Minor) I would recommend this book to any mathematics enthusiast especially undergraduate students in Math or Computer Science. Very informative.

A Chatty History of Algebra
"Unknown Quantity" is a history of algebra presented in Derbyshire's chatty, sometimes quirky style.It is compulsively readable.I kept stopping to remind myself I was reading a HISTORY OF ALGEBRA--and enjoying it!The math is kept at a decently low level.If you can get the idea of a polynomial (Derbyshire explains it up front), that will get you through most of the book.The explanation of groups is painstaking and pretty good, and I am fairly sure I got the main idea about rings and fields, too--though I'm afraid he lost me with "p-adic numbers."There is a strongly geometric angle in the later part of the book.This gives you some attractive diagrams--look at 13-2, the "ampersand curve," or 13-3, which beautifully illustrates the meaning of "variety"--but I found myself wondering whether the author was falling back on geometry because the algebra was just getting too hard to present to his chosen audience ("the curious nonmathematician").When Derbyshire gets to the 20th century he pretty much gives up on trying to explain what the algebraists are doing, and concentrates on the personalities and the historical background.From the little he does tell us about 20th-century algebra, it's hard to see that he had much choice.I still have no idea what Alexander Grothendieck did in his day job, but he sure sounds like a fascinating character.Best chapter:"The Leap into the Fourth Dimension."I now understand what multi-dimensional spaces are all about and why people started thinking about them.Best chapter title:"Lady of the Rings" (that's Emmy Noether, another fascinating character).Best photograph:Hypatia--is this the first algebra book to include a picture of a naked woman?Best footnote:No. 142.(As with "Prime Obsession," the footnotes are wonderfully readable.)Still, "Unknown Quantity" shows even more clearly than "Prime Obsession" did that Derbyshire is at heart a novelist.I wish he'd give us another novel.Anyone who can make the history of algebra interesting is a born story-teller! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Algebra, Universal    4. Equations    5. General    6. History    7. History & Philosophy    8. Mathematics    9. Science/Mathematics    10. History of mathematics   

Reviews (3)

Another pathetic college algebra book
The marketing machine for Stewart's books is working wonders, but the books aren't. Too many colleges and universities are duped into adopting these books while students and conscious instructors exploit minimal benefit from them, specially in the problem sets, which are quite poor.

Discover algebra
We use this book by Stewart, Redlin and Watson for our College Algebra class, one of the two bridge classes between intermediate algebra and the college-level calculus course (the other bridge course is trigonometry).The first chapter is a review of key concepts (one that I've found almost every algebra book tends to cover, regardless of level).Real numbers, algebraic expressions, exponents, radicals, and factoring are reintroduced to students in ways that will carry through the rest of the text.Depending upon the sequencing of study, this section can be glossed over fairly quickly.However, the student would be well served to see the Discovery Project in this section, which shows an interesting graphic/visual way of seeing how equations operate.
Don't like this book
I had this book in my college algebra class, and non of the students liked it.It didn't explain things well enough to enable you to do the chapter problems.The teacher explain everything in class using her own notes and only used the book for us to practice the math problems.If anyone missed a day of class, they were in trouble because they missed the teachers notes, which was the only way to understand the problems in the book.I hope the school stops using this book. I'm sure there are other better college algebra books out there. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (1)

Just for thoughts
I am a Math teacher in Malaysia. I own Bittinger's "ElementaryRead more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - College    3. Algebra - General    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (6)

Worse Math Book Ever!
As others have stated, incomplete explanations (skipping steps), poor examples and confusing jargon...everything NOT desired while attempting to learn math at this level -- and this sentiment was echoed by most other students in my class. Only a gifted math professor would be able to utilize this text with positive results! However, I did find the book to make an excellent fire-starter!

Poor instruction...
This book tries to cover too much and doesn't explain much of anything in detail. My college instructor didn't like the book. My tutor didn't like the book. As far as I can tell, no one thought this book was worth the paper it was written on. I had a very difficlut time following the material. If you have to take a college algebra class, pray this is not the book that is required!

".....you're going to need a different book!!
I've just finished using this book and, while I normally keep my textbooks as reference materials, I found this book to be so bad that I'm selling it back! This book falls short when it comes to providing solid examples; clear, concise text; and valid exercises. Specifically, the pages are so crammed full of text and colors that it is often difficult to quickly find specific information. Much of the text and many of the examples fail to adequately prepare the student for the exercise sets. Additionally, the accompanying solution manual, which helped me immensely, has numerous typos and is missing several pages of solutions. I wish I were alone in my opinion, but the overwhelming majority of my class felt about the same. Even our professor was less than impressed. If this is the textbook you must have for class, get some additional references, i.e. Schaums, or something similar, perhaps even another 5 star rated book from Amazon. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics   

Reviews (1)

A beautiful source of interesting problems
I deeply consider that this is a very stimulating problem book that contains a variety of problems and their solutions.
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Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Geometry - General    3. Mathematics    4. Problems, exercises, etc    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Trigonometry    7. Elementary geometry & trigonometry    8. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (1)

Wonderful Book...
Lial and Hornsby have written a number of books on Algebra. Hence, their expertise in this field of Mathematics and ability to deliver in the form most suitable for the middle and high schoolers , in particular iswonderful. Review Exercises at the end of each majorsubdivisionprovide means for readers to practice. And also ensure that the readershave gained overall expertise in the particular subdivision. Also , anotheradvantage of this book , in contrast to many other available books, is thecumulative review exercises that engulf concepts from all the precedingchapters, which provides the means to show how these topics areinterrelated.Tests provided also aid in this process. The topics are wellorganized and explained.Very Good Book... ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - Elementary    3. Algebra - General    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - General    2. Arithmetic    3. General    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Mathematical foundations    7. Mathematics / General   

Reviews (4)

A delicious smorgasbord of inequalities
Professor Steele has done a wonderful job in developing the theory behind the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality.He starts off with the basic theory and then through the course of the book he teases out the limitless ways the inequality can be used. There is a breathtaking sweep of applications. What is interesting and valuable about his approach is that as he develops the building blocks he explains why or why not a particular approach might not work. I think there is quite a bit of Polya's inspiration in his approach.For instance, he gives Polya's proof of the Carleman inequality which, on it face, is almost outrageously unbelievable ( where does the "e" come from?) but by that stage you worked through the challenge problems and the other material and it is possible to see why the "e" makes sense.
at the core of mathematics
this book deals in a friendly fashion with inequalities (and therefore) with the elementary use of convexity and integrals.
Erudite and stimulating problem book in inequalities
The classic work in this field is Hardy, Littlewood, and Polya's "Inequalities", but as much as I admire these authors for their other works, I have never gotten much out of their inequality book. Steele's book is different: extremely clear, erudite, and thorough, it almost makes everything obvious. The subject of inequalities is something of a hodge-podge, and Steele isn't able to change that, but he helps tie it together with lots of forward and backward references and with returns to problems after we have learned new methods. A good example is Carleman's inequality (easily the most startling result in the book); Steele provides three different proofs spread out through the book, plus a continuous analog.
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Subjects:  1. Algebra - Elementary    2. Inequalities (Mathematics)    3. Mathematics    4. Probability & Statistics - General    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Calculus & mathematical analysis    7. Mathematics / Differential Equations   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - Elementary    2. Arithmetic    3. Algebra    4. Mathematics / General    5. Mathematics    6. Science/Mathematics   

Reviews (2)

Perfect Reminder
I took Algebra in college after taking classes like Calculus 3 and Probability and Statistics. It may seem strange, but it was one the smartest things I ever did. Out of high school it seems like there are a lot of rules involved with algebra, but after reviewing those rules with this book, I realized that there were only a few rules that are responsible for all the intricacies of algebra. Having this new grasp on algebra really made classes like Modern Algebra and many computer books seem very intuitive. I no longer struggling figuring out how to simplify, factor or deal with irrationals. I also have a great reference whenever I forget how to deal with inequalities or anything else for that matter. This book is great for someone trying to remaster algebra again of just as a course textbook. Be careful not to buy the extra workbook that comes with this - it isn't really that useful, as the book provides amples of exercises and solutions. If you think you are too "good" to relearn some algebra, I guaruntee that recovering the basics will improve your abilities to do math 10 fold - it worked for me!

Great! A+++
took some time for shipping delivery, used usps and I thought it was going to be UPS but love the book! thanks! i would buy again ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - Intermediate    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Textbooks    6. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Reviews (1)

Decent at best.
The book is decent.But is not a great text book.It's highlihgted formulas, etc... are very helpful, but it doesn't seem to explain a lot of things in a way to make them easily understandable.I have used manydifferent math books, and I would not use this one unless you are teaachingextremely bright students. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Pre-Calculus    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Trigonometry    7. Elementary geometry & trigonometry    8. Mathematics / Pre-Calculus   

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - Elementary    3. Algebra - General    4. Algebra - Intermediate    5. Mathematics    6. Science/Mathematics    7. Mathematics / General   

Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Arithmetic    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Mathematics / General    7. Number theory   

Reviews (12)

A classic, richness in knowledge few books attempt anymore.
I used these books (Vols. 1&2) in my last two years of high school back in South America. I remember long nights of bad coffee and cigarettes locked in my room reading it over and over. The book is full of really cool knowledge (even for a non-mathematician). Most of today's students learn like little parrots, (without thinking or understanding) just repeating things mindlessly. This will make this book unpopular among these people because having to read a sentence and stop to figure things out on their own is too hard a challenge for them. I guess that like the high standard of the education of old when teachers loved teaching and their subject this book is also going the way of the dinosaurs. I'll get my copy before that if I were you though ;-)

A righteous calculus text
This one of the more righteous books in the author's oeuvre and that is saying something!The subject matter is closely akin to a course I took in Freshman year however it excludes manifolds and operatoins on them.In this respect, the book is not as good as some others out there for an integrated view that even a frosh can grasp.However, overlooking this shortcoming, the text is definitely righteous, being one of the few out there with this integrated approach and being a classic of sorts.

Very thorough, but very dense
I'm currently taking an honors calculus sequence at the U of WI, and have used this book and the first volume for the past three semesters.Needless to say, you have to take Apostol with a grain of salt.Although the no-frills style and lack of worked examples is upsetting to many students who are used to pictures, thorough examples, and color, these volumes cover a lot of material in a small space.And also beware; my professor and others in the math department have found errors in definitions and theorems, and the archaic notation is off-setting at times.Basically, if you're looking for straighforward information (written by a mathematician, for a mathematician), you've found the perfect book.If you're looking for an easy-to-read and understand book, keep searching. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Calculus    2. Mathematical analysis    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Calculus of variations    6. Linear algebra    7. Mathematics / Calculus   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - Linear    2. Business & Economics    3. Business/Economics    4. Counting & Numeration    5. Finance    6. General    7. Mathematics    8. Asset allocation    9. Bayesian statistics    10. Business & Economics / Finance    11. Investment & securities    12. JEL classification: C1, C3, C5, C6, G0, G1    13. MSC (2000) 15-xx, 46-xx, 62-xx, 65-xx, 90-xx    14. Risk assessment & analysis for business    15. estimation risk    16. performance evaluation   

Reviews (11)

Spectacular
O.K., I don't even know how to start...this bookis GREAT.Iwas always afraid of everything that involves numbers, but not anymore.
Look & Think no Further or Longer!!
Michael Kelley's books', that is the ones that pertain to both algebra and calculus, are written so well it's nearly to good to be true. If you're like me, you've been looking and nearly afraid to actually buy a book about algebra or calculus because you've also probably spent a ton of money on that so called "teach yourself" series or style only to slam the cover shut and toss it up on a bookshelf.
Great for a quick refresher
I am 30 and decided to return to college.I had to take the college placement exam and so I needed to brush up on my Algebra.This book is great for that.The book started with the basics and moved up with each chapter.I was fun to read and not at all like the boring old textbooks.The only fault I could find in the book is that there were not enough review problems to do.Each chapter was broken down into sections and each section had about 2 algebra problems to complete, with the answers provided in the back of the book.I wish the author would have expanded this section to a minimum of 5 exercises per section so I truly would grasp each section.
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Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics    5. Mathematics / Algebra / General   

Subjects:  1. Algebra - Elementary    2. General    3. Mathematics    4. Science/Mathematics   

Reviews (4)

Excellent book for self study
I returned to college after 15 years.Before taking the math placement tests, I studied Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 - I placed into precalculus and received an A in this class.I credit the books for giving me theseresults - prior to this I was a poor math student.I have just finishedcalculus (1st class) with an A.I really recommend both of these books. They helped me enormously - and I have regained confidence in my mathabilities.

Best of the Best for Algebra 2
As a seventh grader who took algebra 2, I can say Iknow math. This textbook is a wonderful apporach and gives real life applications for seemingly useless algebra. Great book! If interested in algebra, buy it!

This is a textbook?
VERY POOR TEXTBOOK. POOR EXPLANATIONS. POOR EXAMPLES. POOR TEACHING TIPS. THIS BOOK SHOULD NEVER BE USED IN SCHOOLS. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Algebra - Intermediate    2. Mathematics    3. Science/Mathematics   

Reviews (23)

Perfect!
This text is perfect for advanced undergraduates and those in their first year (or two) of graduate school.The examples are based almost entirely on linear algebra and thereby combine abstract and linear algebra.
Quite simply, the best math book - Ever!
Okay so I guess this review is kind of biased - I've just completed the 2-semester algebra sequence at MIT, being taught by Prof. Artin himself. The course itself was truly fantastic, and throughout the year I have been in utter awe of Prof. Artin - he is without doubt as close to a role-model as I'm ever going to have.
Lack of Explanation and overall disappointing
Frankly, if you use this book, it will be slow going. There is so much to fill in between what Artin covers and what you need to learn to understand the material. I often find myself completely lost in this text (and so do many of the other students in my class). The text and proofs seem to have been trimmed down to the bare minimum, at the cost of the user's understanding. Unlike many texts, in this text you have to understand nearly everything before moving on because nothing is explained or discussed twice (so if you don't like the way it is explained the first time in the text, you are in trouble because that will be your only explanation). Examples are difficult to find -- they are literally within the text, often not even beginning a new paragraph when doing an example. That is, the examples are difficult to find IF there are even examples (there are often times where an example would be extremely useful, but Artin does not provide one, or if he does, glosses over it with little detail). I've leaned a lot on the internet and class notes to get me through my year-long abstract algebra course. Perhaps my mind just isn't meant for abstract algebra, but this is the only math book that I always have difficulties finding answers to my questions and rarely can follow, even after multiple readings. A remark on the problems -- the problems occasionally use terms that the book never even explains or even mentions (leaving you even more confused).
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Subjects:  1. Algebra    2. Algebra - Elementary    3. Algebra - General    4. Mathematics    5. Science/Mathematics    6. Mathematics / Algebra / General