Mathematical Ideas

Nearly thirty years after its first appearance, Mathematical Ideas remains one of the most popular texts in college mathematics. This eighth edition, like its predecessors, has been designed with a variety of students in mind. It is well-suited for several types of courses, including mathematics for liberal arts students, survey courses in mathematics, finite mathematics, and mathematics for prospective and in-service elementary and middle school teachers. Ample topics are included for a two-term course, yet the variety of topics and flexibility of sequence make the text suitable for shorter courses as well. In this edition we have attempted to retain many of the features of the seventh edition, and at the same time introduce new ones that will appeal to a new generation of instructors and students. Our main objectives continue to be comprehensive coverage of topics appropriate for a mathematics survey course, logical and flexible organization, clear exposition, an abundance of examples, and well-planned exercise sets with numerous applications. This is the summary from my college bookstore. It is for Mathematical Ideas, 11th ed. (published 2008) by Charles D. Miller. One of the biggest issues college math instructors face is capturing and keeping student interest. Over the years, John Hornsby has refined a creative solution--bringing the best of Hollywood into his mathematics classroom.Mathematical Ideasapplies this same strategy of engaging students through video clips from popular cinema and television to the textbook. Alongside fresh data and tools, this Eleventh Edition uses up-to-the-minute images as well as old favorites of math being done in Hollywood. In addition, examples are clarified with additional annotations, chapter summaries are made more intuitive to aid review, and chapter tests now include specific section references, making it easier for students to refer back to topics that need more attention. With great care and effort, the authors have crafted this new edition to serve the needs of today's students and instructors.