Analytic Geometry

Book was in like new condition. Very little cover wear. Pages crisp and unmarked. Excellent product, excellent buy. Will trust this book vendor's description of book condition again!

The writer seems to understand the areas where students would have conceptual difficulties. For example, he states after a proof, you may not be comfortable with that proof because we used vectors. Lets show this again using elementary algebra. This allows the student to assure themselves that the proof is correct, and begin to be exposed to proofs using more unfamiliar methods such as with vectors. Soon they will find that their comfort zone widens, and they have more methods available to prove statements. I find that students are actually ready for the exercises at the end of each section after covering that section of material. In other math books it all too often occurs that the material is elementary and yet the questions are pitched at a much more advanced level. If students can NOT answer the questions at the end of a subsection, it is not well taught. This writer seems to want to actually prepare students, so that they are successful by the time they reach the questions. These questions also serve as a review of algebra and geometry. To read this book with understanding, students must have taken geometry. If this has not been done I suggest the geometry course available at www.teach12.com as well as a reputable geometry book such as that by Harold R. Jacobs. For an algebra background I suggest the math courses through www.thinkwell.com. For this text, you will need a knowledge of vectors such as can be found in the thinkwell or other standard precal text. There is usually an attempt to cover the material in this book in Precalculus texts. Typically about 100 pages is allowed in a high school Precalculus text. This book allows over 400 pages. This gives room for more depth of coverage, more examples, and a bit slower progression. I would recommend this text strongly to bright Precalculus students wanting more challenge, as well as to students that just don't seem to be getting the concepts from the abridged version found in the one year high school or college Precalculus texts. There seems to be an unfortunate gap between the knowledge necessary to do well in college and what students have as the come in the door. If you look at the grade curve, most of our children are making C or WORSE in college mathematics and physics. Is it time we admitted that some of the concepts that we throw at children are given out without adequate practice? Analytic Geometry is an area where skill improves with practice, just as does throwing a baseball or playing a piece of music. If you are a student in a school system that firmly believes that students need no more math practice, consider independent study of this text over a summer term prior to calculus.