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Title: Trigonometry (Lial/Hornsby/Schneider Series)
ISBN: 0321227360
Author:
Margaret L. Lial
John Hornsby
David I. Schneider
Publicate Date: 2004-06-12
Publish: 2004-06-12
List Price: $134.67
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $18.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.99
Amazon Merchant Price: $107.73
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Frustrating and Incomplete
This text was required for my university Trig class. Other reviewers have argued that math text books are only supplemental to the material covered in class - that it's the teacher that makes the difference. If that's the case, without a good teacher, this book is nearly useless. Whether the authors are covering fundamentals or advanced concepts/calculations, most everything gets a very cursory, succinct treatment. Should you not understand something covered in class, this text likely will not help to clarify. If you are at all unfamiliar with Trigonometry (as I was going in to this class), this text is not intended to enhance your understanding.
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2: Trigonometry is fun
I first learned trigonometry 26 years ago, and am currently a tutor in a Tutoring Center where math and English are the primary calls for our assistance. We started using this book on Trigonometry by Lial, Hornsby and Schneider last year, and it has been a real aid to all of us.
The chapters are designed with brief overviews, 'Chapter Openers', at the beginning of each. There are sample exercises in the explanations, as well as exercises in the problem sets keyed to specific application of examples. There are summary exercises that give review of mixed concepts, pull-quote boxes (here called 'Function Boxes') to highlight the reference aspect of the text, and useful chapter reviews to the same.
One thing that stands out about this text from the one I used so many years ago is the colour aspect. There are pictures, multi-coloured graphs and illustrations, and a general feel to the book that makes it visually worthwhile to look at. This book also takes advantage of the increasing sophistication of calculators - again, back when I took trigonometry, there were tables of data in the back for looking things up, since calculators (such as they were) had only add/subtract/multiply/divide functions.
The chapters go in a fairly standard pattern for trigonometry. Chaptes progress from basic Trigonometric Functions, defining triangular and angular ideas. This continues more in depth with Acute Angles and Right Angles, then proceeds to Circular Functions, introducing Radian Measures in for good measure. The fourth chapter introduces graphing ideas for the circular functions (sine, cosine, etc.), while the sixth chapter introduces the idea of the inverse circular and trigonometric functions. Other chapters include trigonometric identities (this always seemed to me to be like geometry or logic using trig functions), vectors, complex numbers, polar equations, exponential and logarithmic functions. Many of these concepts have direct application in engineering and other sciences.
This book is also geared for students who will be advancing on to calculus, and gives marginal notes on how trigonometry is used in calculus (so as to pre-empt the question, 'when am I ever going to use this?').
Actually, I found trigonometry to be among the more enjoyable math courses I ever took; together with geometry, it confirmed an early love of the discovery of patterns and symmetry in the very fabric of existence. This book reminds me of those early days of exploring ideas, and it is a pleasure to share these same ideas with new students via this text.
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3: Best Trig book I ever use!
This trig book I used in college in Spring 2005 was GREAT. When I'm stuck with difficult math problems, I looked at the examples in the book and then i got it figured it out and got right answers. This book made homework easier for me. The examples are very clear. This book was so much better than other book (I dont remember the title of the book and name of publisher and author's name) I used in high school trigonometry. The high school trig book was terrible and confusing and caused me to fail the class. Great job, Lial because this book made me to aced the trig final and pass the class with a B in college!
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4: Not Spectacular
I used this book in a semester trigonometry course (covering Chapters 1 through 8), and the book was not the best. First of all, some lessons contained too much information and some too little. In addition, although the exercises are worthwhile, their difficulty levels differ from question to question, so there is no gradual increase in skill and difficulty. The book only provided good explanations on a couple of topics (for example, inverse trig. functions). All in all, the book is "okay"; if you have a good instructor, you'll still learn trigonometry.
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5: Good if you are NOT majoring in Math or Engineering
This book really lacks proper theory and instruction. The book focuses more on giving you problems than it does trying to explain the principle and aspect covered in Trigonometry. If you are are looking for a book that can help you out by giving you work(math problems), this is it. Otherwise, stay clear of this book, find a book that has more instructions, more theories, simply more.
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