College Algebra: Make It Real. Frank Wilson

Book excerpt: This new text provides a contemporary approach to college algebra, ideal for the many skeptical or apprehensive students who ask, "When am I ever going to use this?" The key phrase is "Make It Real" since the goal is to make the material relevant and understandable to today's college students. But many books make this claim—so how is COLLEGE ALGEBRA: MAKE IT REAL, International Edition different? In other texts, which simply wrap real-world situations around problems, the context isn't needed to do the mathematics. Written by skilled and passionate teachers, this text uses real-world data sets and situations to draw out mathematical concepts. Students are immersed in familiar contexts—from golf course ratings to Egyptian pyramids—from which concepts emerge naturally, and then guided in using their understanding of those ideas to make sense of the mathematics. The real-world contexts are not only helpful for understanding procedures—they're necessary. The concept of a function, the use of modeling, and the thorough integration of real-world applications are integral to the text. If there's one new college algebra text crafted to stand up to a "reality check" comparison with your current book, this is it.