Using and Understanding Mathematics : A Quantitative Reasoning Approach

Most students taking this course do so to fulfill a requirement, but the true benefit of the course is learning how to use and understand mathematics in daily life. This quantitative reasoning text is written expressly for those students, providing them with the mathematical reasoning and quantitative literacy skills they'll need to make good decisions throughout their lives. Common-sense applications of mathematics engage students while underscoring the practical, essential uses of math.

Jeffrey Bennett specializes in mathematics and science education. He has taught at every level, from pre-school through graduate school, including more than 50 college courses in mathematics, physics, astronomy, and education. His work on Using and Understanding Mathematics began in 1987, when he helped create a new mathematics course for the University of Colorado’s core curriculum. Variations on this course, with its quantitative reasoning approach, are now taught at hundreds of colleges nationwide. In addition to his work in mathematics, Dr. Bennett (whose PhD is in astrophysics) has written leading college-level textbooks in astronomy, statistics, and the new science of astrobiology, as well as books for the general public. He also proposed and developed both the Colorado Scale Model Solar System on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus and the Voyage Scale Model Solar System, a permanent, outdoor exhibit on the National Mall in Washington, DC. He has recently begun writing science books for children, including the award-winning Max Goes to the Moon and Max Goes to Mars. When not working, he enjoys masters swimming and hiking the trails of Boulder, Colorado, with his family.

William L. Briggs has been on the mathematics faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver for 22 years. He teaches numerous courses within the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, and has special interest in teaching calculus, differential equations, and mathematical modeling. He developed the quantitative reasoning course for liberal arts students at University of Colorado at Denver supported by his textbook Using and Understanding Mathematics. He has written two other tutorial monographs, The Multigrid Tutorial and The DFT: An Owner's Manual for the Discrete Fourier Transform, as well as Ants, Bikes, Clocks, a mathematical problem solving text for undergraduates. He is a University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar, an Outstanding Teacher awardee of the Rocky Mountain Section of the MAA, and the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Ireland. Bill lives with his wife, Julie, and their gordon setter, Seamus, in Boulder, Colorado. He loves to bake bread, run trails, and rock climb in the mountains near his home.