Algebra and Trigonometry

Axler has written two very similar textbooks, "Algebra & Trigonometry" and "Precalculus". As far as I can tell, they are roughly equivalent (containing much of the same text) with the main difference between them being the order of some of the sections. You might think they form a sequence, but they don't, and I don't think there's any reason to own both.I like Sheldon Axler's books a lot. I feel he has a good way of explaining things at just the right level for the material that he's presenting. He gives you advice on how to read a math book that is appropriate to students at the level of the material he's teaching. He occasionally makes you do a little work to make sense of the reading, but I think he does it in a calculated manner, making you learn to make little leaps of understanding now because he knows you'll have to make bigger leaps later on when you study more advanced subjects.Axler avoids trying to teach you things that he doesn't think you need to study, because he also teaches more advanced courses and he knows what you'll need later and what you won't. I appreciate an author who has the integrity to include only what he thinks should be taught, rather than filling his book with more material than any course could cover in order to avoid having to decide what's really important.Since he treats you like an adult, Axler tells you right there in the book what he is and isn't going to teach you and why he decided to do things in a particular way. For example, in this book, he doesn't think you need to know Cramer's rule, and he tells you why, and he explains why Gaussian elimination (which he does teach you) is a better tool that you're more likely to use in the future.This book teaches you a particular variant of polynomial division which, as he explains, isn't the way it's usually presented but it makes it very clear what it is that you're doing and why it works; in comparison, the traditional method seems more like a magical procedure to be memorized. (Once you learn the method that Axler teaches and you've done the problems he gives you, it's actually quite easy to figure out the traditional method by yourself since now you know how it works.) By the way, understanding this will come in handy when you read his book Linear Algebra Done Right, which uses the division algorithm as a crucial part of some proofs.Personally I didn't need to read most of this book. I bought it to learn a few things that my courses in high school had skipped, and as a reference for some information (mainly trigonometry equalities) that I didn't remember. I was impressed with it all the same, though, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who is reviewing the material or learning it for the first time.For those learning this for the first time: In my opinion, this is not a very exciting part of your mathematical education. Axler does a good job with it, but it's still a bit pedestrian. You want to get through this and get on to mind-blowing stuff that comes next: calculus and linear algebra.

Book was in perfect condition and I got it for a really cheap price. I'm glad I was able to get it so cheaply compared to my college's bookstore price.

Got the book in brand new condition

Heavy duty text. That is, I would never use this text at the High School or Community College level. I have been retired for 20 years play around with it using Mathematica.

Great buy! Great cost! Shipping was faster than notified which was great as it was for my freshman at university.