The Dugopolski Precalculus series for 1999 is technology optional. With this approach, teachers will be able to choose to offer either a strong technology-oriented course, or a course that does not make use of technology. For departments requiring both options, this text provides the advantage of flexibility. College Algebra and Trigonometry is designed for students who are pursuing further study in mathematics, but is equally appropriate for those who are not. For those students who will study additional mathematics, this text will provide the skills, understanding, and insights necessary for success in future courses. For those students who will not pursue further mathematics, the extensive emphasis on applications and modeling will demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of mathematics in the world today. Additionally, the focus on problem solving that is a hallmark of this text provides numerous opportunities for students to reason and think their way through problem situations. The mathematics presented here is interesting, useful, and worth studying. One of the author's principal goals in writing this text was to get students to feel the same way.
Mark Dugopolski was born in Menominee, Michigan. After receiving a B.S. from Michigan State University, he taught high school for four years, and then went on to receive an M.S. in mathematics from Northern Illinois University. He also received a Ph.D. in the area of topology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and ever since, Mark has been teaching at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, LA. He has been writing textbooks for about fifteen years. He is married and has two daughters, and enjoys playing tennis, jogging, and riding his bicycle in his spare time. Despite the presence of sailboats both on and in his precalculus textbooks, Mark does not sail-- it's his passion for showing students how mathematics is used in the real world that led him to the world of sailing.