Customer Reviews

Geometry - Plane, Solid & Analytic Problem Solver (Problem Solvers Solution Guides)

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I bought this book right after I started a class in Linear Algebra where the first chapter had us working some geometric proofs using the rules for vector addition, subtraction, and scalar multiplication.

Although this book strictly focuses on geometry and does not use vectors in its proofs, it did clearly illustrate proofs that were easy enough to think through in terms of vectors.

The book is well-written and begins with a review of Methods of Proof, Lines & Angles, Perpendicularity, and Triangles before getting into specific geometric forms.

900+ pages and 900+ problems with a summary of theorems and properties at the end of the book. Some reviews at Amazon contain complaints about REA Problems Solvers, but I have always liked them and I really like this one. They are not intended to replace a textbook, but to give lots of examples over-and-above what a textbook would include.

For example, a few years ago I was studying College Algebra and I was having trouble understanding logarithms. So I reviewed the examples in the REA Problem Solver for Algebra and Trigonometry and worked some problems along with the REA book and then I saw how simple they really were. I have purchased REA Problem Solvers for Calculus, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra as well and have found all of them to be helpful with some being more useful or better-written than others.

One of the complaints about these books is that they are all written using a Courier-style font. This is true, but there are still Greek symbols, integral signs, exponents, etc (e.g. you do not see 10-squared written as 10^2 - they use a superscript for the exponent). Another complaint that I have seen is that they contain errors. I have not noticed any, but that does not mean there are none present. I do not review these books cover-to-cover, but take a look at those topics that I need to review, so I may not have encountered any errors but they could still be present.

Purchased new, the books may seem a bit pricey if you are on a budget (nowadays the books have a list price of $30.95 for some subjects and $25.95 for others, with discounted prices ranging between $17.95 and $30.25). I always buy them from the affiliated 3rd-party booksellers on Amazon. I got my Geometry Problem Solver extremely cheap $3.15 plus $3.99 for S&H - total of $7.14 and the book arrived in a couple of weeks and was in excellent condition (like new!).

Most of the time I have spent in the $12-$15 range (incl S&H) for these guides. Even if I only were to find help on a single topic within the book, that, to me, is still a bargain. Especially so if you consider the price relative to the cost of tuition and textbooks. If you are really price conscious, most college libraries have copies that are rarely checked out. Until my copy was shipped, I used the one in our library and saw that it had last been checked out in 2004!

p.s. I am 54 years old and went back to night school and started studying math 3 years ago with College Algebra, Trig, PreCalc, Calc 1,2,3, Diff Eq, and now Linear Alg. I have had REA guides for all of the classes and have found them useful in every case.

I wanted to get better at organizing my mind. You knew they taught Chess at West Point. Right? Well, Geometry makes you think. It makes you think in logical steps for problem solving. This book just gives example after example and exhaustively ingrains how to solve Geometry problems. Along the way it coincidentally builds your endurance for solving other problems. This may not be the best book or the most cutting edge but it has such a huge mass of answers and ways to arrive at them that you will absorb the methods. I like it. You might say that if you stare at these pages long enough that you learn by osmosis. I think there should be a book like this in every field of endeavor. Call it canned experience. Oh, a better typeset would be nice.

A great book loaded with proofs for geometry (SAS, CPCTC, etc) and geometic problems (Pythagorean Therom).