Product Description

A plain-English guide to the basics of trig
From sines and cosines to logarithms, conic sections, and polynomials, this friendly guide takes the torture out of trigonometry, explaining basic concepts in plain English, offering lots of easy-to-grasp example problems, and adding a dash of humor and fun. It also explains the "why" of trigonometry, using real-world examples that illustrate the value of trigonometry in a variety of careers.
Mary Jane Sterling (Peoria, IL) has taught mathematics at Bradley University in Peoria for more than 20 years. She is also the author of the highly successful Algebra For Dummies (0-7645-5325-9).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14882 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From the Back Cover
Get up to speed quickly with worked-out problems

Understand the how and the why of trigonometry

Confused by cosines? Perplexed by polynomials? Don't worry! This friendly guide takes the torture out of trigonometry by explaining the basics in plain English, offering lots of easy-to-grasp examples, and adding a dash of humor and fun. You'll see how trig applies to everyday life — and why it's important to a wide variety of careers.

Discover how to:

• Solve equations
• Graph functions
• Figure out formulas
• Identify identities
• Solve practical problems with trig

About the Author
Mary Jane Sterling, the author of the highly successful Algebra For Dummies, has taught mathematics at Bradley University in Peoria for more than 20 years.

Customer Reviews

Great, Practical Book with Good Topic Coverage
This is a great book to understand basic trig concepts and to help you do real things in real life with trigonometry. From building a tree house for your daughter to calculating the distance to the moon, this book offers great coverage of trig plus practical applications!

Trig
I am not sure if it was helpful to my husband, but he has moved on to Calculus.

Excellent Book But Could Have Used a Proofreader Or Two
I was in a bit of a quandary as to how to rate this book. I bought the book and the companion "Trigonometry Workbook for Dummies" to refresh my trig skills, long rusted after nearly 50 years of little use. Both books are really quite good although the workbook could be more comprehensive. The big problem with the workbook, and to a lesser extent with the "Trigonometry for Dummies" book, is the large number of errors in the book. One works out a very complicated identity problem only to find that the stated problem is different from the problem answered due to typographical errors. I don't think I went seven pages in the workbook without finding an error. Most of the errors were changed minus or plus signs. This made maintaining confidence in the book very difficult.

One would think that a big publisher like Wiley would employ competent proofreaders. I would also expect them to have an errata sheet somewhere on their web page. But, nooo, nothing helpful there at all except a glossary they forgot to put in this book.

Overall, both books were very helpful, with the exception of not having a lot of confidence that the answer to the problem I was trying to solve would be correct.