Mathematics: A Practical Odyssey

Written for the liberal arts student, the Second Edition of this successful text covers those topics that are essential components to a well-rounded education. By emphasizing practical applications as well as the history of mathematics, the authors show students that mathematics is relevant to their education and to human history and culture. The authors assume that students using this book have completed the intermediate algebra course, without excelling in it. Consequently, they provide material that is challenging, yet "doable".

M.S., University of California, Berkeley

Thomas Mowry earned a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Mathematics from Michigan Technological University, in Houghton, Michigan. He began his college teaching career at City College of San Francisco and then went on to teach at San Francisco State University, Golden Gate University, and Cogswell College. He has been a professor of mathematics at Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, California since 1985, where he has taught the complete gamut of courses from arithmetic to differential equations. He has served as department chair at DVC for the last seven years. Along with co-author, David Johnson, he created a college-level, transferable mathematics course (at DVC ) designed for students in the liberal arts. As no appropriate textbooks were available for this course, he and David created Mathematics: A Practical Odyssey, which was first published in 1992.