Math from Dr. Del

A forum to help my students learn mathematics. An extension of the normal classroom. An experiment in the use of Blogs to teach mathematics. Used in conjuction with www.drdelmath.com

About Me

Name: Dr. Del

I have been teaching University and College mathematics for more than 30 years. I have published math textbooks, research papers, as well as pedagogical papers. I have owned my own software development company, been Vice President of an engineering firm, consulted for the cathodic protection industry throught the US, in Europe, and in the Middle East. Blogs are posted with the most recent at the top, so it is best to read from the bottom up.

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Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Reading Mathematics Tip 1

Reading Mathematics

Tip 1 from Dr. Del
Read and remember the title of your textbook as well as its authors.
In this College Algebra course at Meramec Community College we use the sixth edition of a text named College Algebra written by Ron Larson and Robert P. Hostetler.

Dr. Larson is a professor of mathematics at Penn State Erie.  He has authored several math textbooks.  He took his Ph.D. from the Univ. of Colorado in 1970.

Dr. Hostetler is an emeritus professor of mathematics at Penn State Erie.  He has authored several math textbooks.  He took his Ph.D. from Penn State University in 1970.

Why should you take note of the book title ?
I will have a bit more to say about this in a later post, but for now you should observe that this title indicates that the topic is ALGEBRA and that it is at the COLLEGE level.

So in this course we study the subject of algebra.  Not arithmetic; not trigonometry; not geometry; not calculus.  We will study ALGEBRA.   We will not study it the same way you might have studied it in the past, because this is COLLEGE Algebra not HIGH SCHOOL Algebra.

posted by Dr. Del | 4:13 PM