Maths: A Student's Survival Guide

Book excerpt: This friendly and gentle self-help workbook covers mathematics essential for first-year undergraduate scientists and engineers. Mathematics underlies all science and engineering degrees. If your mathematics is not strong, you may have a problem. This book is the solution. Jenny Olive uses her wide experience of teaching and helping students to give you a clear and confident understanding of the core mathematics you need to start a science and engineering degree. Each topic is introduced very gently, starting with simple examples that really bring out the basics, then moving on to more challenging problems. The author takes time to give tricks of the trade and shortcuts, but is also careful to show you common errors and how to anticipate and avoid them. There are over 800 questions for you to do with full and detailed solutions given so that if you get stuck you can work through and see exactly where you have gone wrong. Topics covered include trigonometry and hyperbolic functions, sequences and series (with detailed help on binomial series), differentiation and integration, and complex numbers. This book is a fun and easy way to brush up your maths - either before you start on your university or college course, or while you are getting to grips with it. It's never too late!