College Algebra, Sixth Edition [Hardcover]

Ron Larson (Author), Robert P. Hostetler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2003 | ISBN-10: 0618386491 | ISBN-13: 978-0618386499 | Edition: 6th

As the best-selling text in the field, College Algebra provides unparalleled exercises, motivating real-life applications, a supportive pedagogical design, and innovative ancillaries and resources, making it a complete solution for both students and instructors.

• New! Model It real-life applications in nearly every text section are multi-part exercises that require students to generate and analyze mathematical models. First referenced in the Why You Should Learn It at the beginning of each section, these interesting applications illustrate why it is important to learn the concepts in each section.
• New! Enlarged printable graphs in many exercise sets contain problems asking students to draw on the graph provided.For added convenience, in the Sixth Edition these proofs have been moved from an appendix to the end of relevant chapters.
• New! P.S. Problem Solving, at the conclusion of each chapter, features a collection of thought-provoking and challenging exercises that further explore and expand upon the concepts of the chapter. These exercises have unique characteristics that set them apart from traditional algebra and trigonometry exercises.
• New! A wealth of student success tools includes: How to Study This Chapter, a chapter-opening study guide that includes What you should learn (section-opening objectives), Important Vocabulary, a list of Study Tools, and a list of Additional Resources to help the student prepare for the chapter; Why you should learn it, a section-opening, real-life application or a reference to other branches of mathematics, illustrating the relevance of the section's content; and What did you learn?, a concise chapter summary organized by section. These objectives are correlated to the chapter Review Exercises to help students prepare for exams.
• Abundant, up-to-date Real-Life Applications are integrated throughout the examples and exercises and identified by a globe icon to reinforce the relevance of the concepts being learned.
• A wide variety of Exercises, including computational, conceptual, and applied problems are carefully graded in difficulty to allow students to gain confidence as they progress. Each exercise set includes Synthesis Exercises that promote further exploration of mathematical concepts, critical-thinking skills, and writing about mathematics, and Review Exercises that reinforce previously learned skills and concepts.
• Special Algebra of Calculus examples and exercises highlight the algebraic techniques used in calculus to show students how the mathematics they are learning now will be used in future courses.
• Optional graphing technology support is provided in marginal point-of-use instructions that encourage the use of graphing technology as a tool to visualize mathematical concepts, to verify other solution methods, and to facilitate computation. In addition, the section An Introduction to Graphing Utilities helps the student become familiar with the basic functionality of a graphing utility. The use of technology is optional in this text; all exercises that require the use of a graphing utility are clearly identified by an icon.
• Explorations preceding the introduction of selected topics provide the opportunity to engage students in active discovery of mathematical concepts and relationships, often through the power of technology. Explorations strengthen students' critical- thinking skills and help develop an intuitive understanding of theoretical concepts.
• All Examples have been carefully chosen to illustrate a particular mathematical concept or problem-solving skill. Every example contains step-by-step solutions, most with line-by-line explanations that lead students through the solution process, making it easy for students to understand the concepts being explained.
• Additional carefully crafted learning tools designed to create a rich learning environment include Study Tips, Historical Notes, Writing about Mathematics, Chapter Review Exercises, Chapter Tests, and Cumulative Tests.
• A clear, predictable layout, in which solutions and explanations begin and end on the same page, allows students to see concepts and solutions as a whole, without page-turning distractions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 675 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company; 6th edition (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618386491
• ISBN-13: 978-0618386499
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Again, Larson creates a thorough and CLEAR, May 29, 2003

By 

Jim "nevadacity1" (Nevada City, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: College Algebra, Fifth Edition (Hardcover)

textbook for college algebra.

As with his other texts, Larson approaches subjects from an analytical perspective AND from a graphic/geometric perspective.
This allows students who despise the Xs, Ys, and Zs of algebra to "see" what might otherwise escape them if approached only analytically.

Excellent text.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hope you have a good teacher., September 19, 2011

By 

ronco - See all my reviews

This review is from: College Algebra (Hardcover)

This book sucks if it's the only tool you have to learn College Algebra. I am currently taking this course and this book sucks as a reference manual. It presupposes that you know quite a bit and offers few examples of concepts being presented. My teacher is less than stellar, as he is excellent at math, but not so hot with the English language. So between this text and my teacher I am having a really hard time grasping anything in this class. I swear I'm learning more from youtube videos and online math labs.

*edit*

Since writing my original review of this book, even my professor agrees that this book falls short in terms of adequately explaining concepts. Most examples are given only in theoretical terms with no examples given using actual numbers to show how make use of the provided formulas. Moreso there is a huge difference between the examples given and the questions that are given as review. Basically, Larson provides examples using the most basic forms, but writes questions that are significantly more complex, making novices completely confused on how to bridge the gap between the two.

The language in the book is extremely cryptic. I often have to re-read portions over and over just to get the gist of what's trying to be said. Most sentences in this book are constructed in such a way you'd think Rubik was the author of this book. I have had less trouble with dissecting and understanding Shakespeare or Aristotle than this book, and I'm not majoring in any form of literature.

The worst thing about this book is the attached Webassign homework system. Hopefully you don't have to use this garbage either. It's a web site where you go to complete homework. It's a good idea in theory, but half the time things don't work. On paper I can finish the assigned problems in less than 10 minutes, but it takes anywhere from 5-30 minutes more to correctly input my answer into this system... and I am no slouch when it comes to interfacing with computers, websites, etc. Also you're given something like 5 tries to get an answer right, so I've wound up getting locked out of answering the question because I used up all my tries attempting to get my answer inputted in a form that the website will accept. One thing that is nice about Webassign is that there's a link labeled "Watch It" for some problems where a video pops up with someone verbally explaining the steps involved in getting to the answer, showing steps on a whiteboard-like display.The problem here is that 1) these aren't available for every problem assigned, so cross your fingers that you already understand that concept, and 2)There are multiple people who narrate these things, so the quality of the explanations vary greatly from narrator to narrator. Some of them do a fantastic job of explaining and writing out the steps, and some basically just repeat the question, combine multiple steps without showing any work and say the answer. It's completely inconsistent. The good videos are usually 5-10 minutes long, but the bad ones are like 30 seconds- 2 minutes, with the bulk of the time spent repeating the question.

This book is garbage, and my belief is anyone saying otherwise is probably well versed in higher-level math and are just skimming this book for a refresher, using it as a reference, or work for the publishing company and want to make sure their pockets stay fat, regardless of whether students learn or not. It's no mystery that new editions of textbooks come out about once a year (because so many things in Algebra change from year to year) so maybe this book is written like this on purpose so a good chunk of students will fail and have to buy the 6th edition next year.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the greatest teaching instrument, September 26, 2011

By 

Michael Gerard "Myk" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: College Algebra (Hardcover)

I'm currently using this book in a college algebra course. I find the book to be very problematic. It assumes that you know too much background information. It gives examples of problems, but often only the most simplistic form of a type of problem leaving you to figure out for yourself the methodology for solving the more advanced versions which may even contain additional steps.

The leap in this book from quality level of example to sophistication level of the actual problems is just unbearable without excellent teaching/tutoring.

It often skips multiple steps in its explanations leaving you scouring the internet for video examples to make up for it's lack of breaking down it's conclusions. It also has an odd organization of including a pre-chapter that contains quite a bit of algebra in it rather than focusing on pre-algebraic information (which it premises to do) so you will find yourself rummaging back to the P chapter just to even begin to do the exercises in the other chapters which is annoying when it would be more intuitive to keep similar information together. In it's defense this book does cover quite an exhaustive amount of material.