Using & Understanding Mathematics prepares you for the math you'll encounter in future courses, careers and daily life. Quantitative reasoning trailblazers Bennett and Briggs help foster the problem-solving tools needed to think critically about quantitative issues in society. Their content-driven approach is organized by mathematical ideas; after each topic is presented, examples of its applications are shown. The 8th Edition is extensively revised throughout, from the coronavirus pandemic to the latest presidential election and more.
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About our authors
Jeffrey Bennett served as the first director of the program "Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Skills" at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he developed the groundbreaking curriculum that became the basis of this textbook. He holds a BA in biophysics (University of California, San Diego) and an MS and a PhD in astrophysics (University of Colorado), and has focused his career on math and science education.
In addition to co-authoring this textbook, he is also the lead author of best-selling college textbooks on statistical reasoning, astronomy, and astrobiology, and of more than a dozen books for children and adults. All 6 of his children's books have been selected for NASA's Story Time From Space. Among his other projects, Dr. Bennett proposed and co-led the development of the Voyage Scale Model Solar System in Washington, DC; created the free Totality app to help people learn about total solar eclipses; wrote an online primer on global warming; and developed a free, online curriculum for middle school Earth and Space Science. Learn more at Dr. Bennett's websites, Jeffrey Bennett: Astronomer, Teacher, & Writer, and Big Kid Science.
William L. Briggs was on the mathematics faculty at Clarkson University for 6 years and at the University of Colorado at Denver for 23 years, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate courses, with a special interest in applied mathematics. During much of that time he designed and taught courses in quantitative reasoning. In addition to this book, he has co-authored textbooks on statistical reasoning and calculus, as well as monographs in computational mathematics. He is also author of How America Got Its Guns (University of New Mexico Press). Dr. Briggs is a University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Ireland; he holds a BA degree from the University of Colorado and an MS and a PhD from Harvard University.
