Schaum's Outline of Mathematics for Liberal Arts Majors (Schaum's Outline Series) [Paperback]

Christopher Thomas (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0071544291 | ISBN-13: 978-0071544290 | Publication Date: August 26, 2008 | Edition: 1

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Schaum's Outline of Mathematics for Liberal Arts Majors helps students understand basic concepts and offer extra practice on such topics as logic, truth tables, axiom statements, consumer mathematics, probability and counting techniques, the real number system, and more. Each chapter offers clear concise explanations of topics and include hundreds of practice problems with step-by-step solutions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (August 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071544291
• ISBN-13: 978-0071544290
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #100,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a word from the author, October 7, 2008

By 

Christopher L. Thomas (North Adams, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Schaum's Outline of Mathematics for Liberal Arts Majors (Schaum's Outline Series) (Paperback)

I wrote this book as an inexpensive resource for students taking a college course entitled "Math for the Liberal Arts," "Math for Poets," or any other such basic course designed to satisfy the general education math requirement for graduation. This was a difficult task because these courses cover a very wide variety of topics: graphs, sets, logic, voting, fair division, fractals, etc. I covered all of these and more, though it is possible that your professor might include one or two topics not covered by this book.

I have taught a Math for the Liberal Arts course many times at MCLA, a small state college in Massachusetts, so I have a fairly solid understanding of the sorts of students enrolled in these classes. Often, these students have been taught mathematics poorly in the past, and thus have a very negative opinion of it. Other students have a decent grasp of the basics, but are more interested in a wide survey of mathematics than a course on a single topic (calculus, statistics, etc.). With this audience in mind, I took care to include brief, clear explanations for the all the topics covered in the book. Formulas without explanations can be bewildering, but long-winded mathematical ramblings can be even worse.

Anyone who picks up this book ought to be able to learn useful and important mathematical concepts in a very short period of time, even if that person has only a basic understanding of arithmetic and algebra. This book ought to be a benefit for a person currently taking a course like Math for the Liberal Arts. While this book does not cover any advanced mathematics topics completely, it will also serve as a gentle introduction to geometry, statistics, trigonometry, and precalculus.

As well, this book introduces a number of advanced and interesting results in mathematics, for example: Russell's paradox, Godel's Theorem, Cantor's diagonal proof, non-Euclidean geometry, the fourth dimension, fractals, and the traveling salesman problem.

I hope you enjoy it!