College Algebra, 8th Edition

Book Preface

In the Eighth Edition, we continue to offer instructors and students a text that is pedagogically sound, mathematically precise, and still comprehensible. There are many changes in the mathematics, art, and design; the more significant changes are noted here.

• New Chapter Openers Each Chapter Opener has three parts, In Mathematics, In Real Life, and In Careers. In Mathematics describes an important mathematical topic taught in the chapter. In Real Life tells students where they will encounter this topic in real-life situations. In Careers relates application exercises to a variety of careers.

• New Study Tips and Warning/Cautions Insightful information is given to students in two new features. The Study Tip provides students with useful information or suggestions for learning the topic. The Warning/Caution points out common mathematical errors made by students.

• New Algebra Helps Algebra Help directs students to sections of the textbook where they can review algebra skills needed to master the current topic.

• New Side-by-Side Examples Throughout the text, we present solutions to many examples from multiple perspectives—algebraically, graphically, and numerically.

The side-by-side format of this pedagogical feature helps students to see that a problem can be solved in more than one way and to see that different methods yield the same result. The side-by-side format also addresses many different learning styles.

• New Capstone Exercises Capstones are conceptual problems that synthesize key topics and provide students with a better understanding of each section’s concepts. Capstone exercises are excellent for classroom discussion or test prep, and teachers may find value in integrating these problems into their reviews of the section.

• New Chapter Summaries The Chapter Summary now includes an explanation and/or example of each objective taught in the chapter.

• Revised Exercise Sets The exercise sets have been carefully and extensively examined to ensure they are rigorous and cover all topics suggested by our users. Many new skill-building and challenging exercises have been added.

For the past several years, we’ve maintained an independent website— CalcChat.com—that provides free solutions to all odd-numbered exercises in the text. Thousands of students using our textbooks have visited the site for practice and help with their homework. For the Eighth Edition, we were able to use information from CalcChat.com, including which solutions students accessed most often, to help guide the revision of the exercises.