Algebra in Context: Introductory Algebra from Origins to Applications by Amy Shell-gellaschMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book approaches the teaching of algebra for first year undergraduate students with a unique use of the art’s history and development. Students that already encountered many of these topics in a traditional format in high school and possibly beginning or intermediate algebra courses in college may find this engaging framework a boon to understanding. The mathematical development of early civilizations in Babylonia, Greece, China, Rome, Egypt, and Central America figure in highly along with the roles of famous persons making Western advances, such as Descartes, Fibonacci, Napier, Cardano, and more. This book is wide in scope and covers the most common fundamental algebra concepts including number bases, notation, real numbers, complex numbers, factoring of numbers and polynomials, solving equations from first to third order, nth roots, set theory, logarithms, exponential functions, and more. What appears to some students to be merely abstract procedures may become connected through the history of their development to historical motivations in an engaging and accessible manner. In this case, the “context” of the title is the history of mathematics selectively presented to support and augment the learning of elementary algebra.
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