
Intermediate Algebra
Katherine Yoshiwara, Pierce College
Copyright Year: 2020
Publisher: Bruce Yoshiwara
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Free Documentation License (GNU)
Free Documentation License (GNU)
Reviews





The book is very comprehensive and thorough. At almost 900 pages, it may be too lengthy. read more
The book is very comprehensive and thorough. At almost 900 pages, it may be too lengthy.
I did not notice any major accuracy concerns.
There was a good mixture of current data with older data that focused on showing students the relevance of the mathematical concept.
Some definitions seemed unclear.
There was consistency in the book and a lot of scaffolding and review to make it easy for students to refresh their memories on concepts learned previously.
The formatting made the book difficult to read. If that was fixed, I think the text would be easy to read.
The order of some of the topics seemed strange to me. For example, introducing function notation and the idea of input and output several chapters into the book would not be my preferred order of topics. Also, discussing slope and intercepts after linear equations would frustrate my students since they have all had linear equations in previous high school level classes.
Throughout the text there are multiple formatting issues with important text like equations and tables which would make it difficult for students to use. In general the margins and indentations feel off reading it in PDF form.
Also, I like that the text has a lot of check point questions, but the answers are too close to the question. There would be no way for a student to read the question without already seeing the answer.
I did not notice any.
It seemed appropriate for a math textbook.
This book has a clear focus on applications and showing students the usefulness of the topics discussed. Yet it also scaffolds students from the basics to the more complicated topics.
Table of Contents
- 1. Linear Models
- 2. Applications of Linear Models
- 3. Quadratic Models
- 4. Applications of Quadratic Models
- 5. Functions and Their Graphs
- 6. Powers and Roots
- 7. Exponential Functions
- 8. Polynomials and Rational Functions
- 9. Equations and Graphs
- 10. Logarithmic Functions
Ancillary Material
About the Book
Intermediate Algebra is a textbook for students who have some acquaintance with the basic notions of variables and equations, negative numbers, and graphs, although we provide a "Toolkit" to help the reader refresh any skills that may have gotten a little rusty. In this book we journey farther into the subject, to explore a greater variety of topics including graphs and modeling, curve-fitting, variation, exponentials and logarithms, and the conic sections. We use technology to handle data and give some instructions for using a graphing calculator, but these can easily be adapted to any other graphing utility.
About the Contributors
Author
Kathy Yoshiwara was born in Derby in the UK and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. She attended Michigan State University, where she studied Greek and mathematics. She did graduate work at UCLA and earned an MA in mathematics in 1977. She left UCLA in 1979 to join the faculty at Pierce College, where she taught for 33 years, retiring in 2013. In the 1998-1999 academic year she taught at Barnsley College in Yorkshire, England on a Fulbright teaching Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics from the Southern California Section of the MAA. In November 2003, she won the Teaching Excellence Award for the Western Region from the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC). She is married to Bruce Yoshiwara and benefits from his expertise in all things mathematical.