Exploring Mathematics

Includes Access to Student Companion Website! Exploring Mathematics: Investigations with Functions is designed for one- or two- term mathematics courses for humanities and liberal arts majors. This unique ten-chapter text covers modern applications of mathematics in the liberal arts and situates the discipline within its rich and varied history. Exploring Mathematics draws on examples from the humanities, including how math is used in music and astronomy, and features perforated pages for easy study and review. The student-friendly writing style and informal approach demystifies the subject matter and offers an engaging and informative overview that will pique students’ curiosity and desire to explore mathematics further. Organized around the use of algebraic functions, this text builds conceptual bridges between each chapter so that students develop advanced mathematical skills within a larger context. Unlike other texts that present mathematical topics as a disconnected set of rules and equations, Exploring Mathematics flows seamlessly from one subject to the next, situating each within its historical and cultural context. This text provides a unique opportunity to showcase the richness of mathematics as a foundation upon which to build understanding of many different phenomena. Students will come away with a solid knowledge base of the unifying ideas of mathematics and the ability to explain how mathematics helps us to better our society and understand the world around us. The Text's Objectives: The author chose the topics based on meeting the specific NCTM curriculum standards to: 1. Strengthen estimation and computational skills. 2. Utilize algebraic concepts. 3. Emphasize problem-solving and reasoning. 4. Emphasize pattern and relationship recognition. 5. Highlight importance of units in measurement. 6. Highlight importance of the notion of a mathematical function. 7. Display mathematical connections to other disciplines. Key Features: A full color, interactive design provides students with a safe environment to graph solutions, check off chapter objectives, and answer questions directly in their textbook Piques student interest in math by relating it to areas such as astronomy and music, found in Chapter 4, Astronomy and the Methods of Science and Chapter 9, Mathematics in Music and Cryptology Utilizes the concept of a function as a central theme, providing a common thread through chapters Presents an engaging, student-friendly style with problem sets that incorporate real-world applications and data An abundance of examples illustrating important applications are presented in each section, while four-color pictures and diagrams reinforce key concepts and increase student comprehension Every new, printed copy includes access to a student companion website, featuring a lab manual and student solutions manual