Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus, 7th Student Edition

Focus on Modeling sections illustrate modeling techniques as well as how mathematics can be applied to model real-life situations. These sections, as well as others, are devoted to teaching students how to create their own mathematical models, rather than using prefabricated formulas.

Real-world applications from engineering, physics, chemistry, business, biology, environmental studies, and other fields demonstrate how mathematics is used to model real-life situations.

Mathematics in the Modern World vignettes show that mathematics is a living science crucial to the scientific and technological progress of recent times, as well as to the social, behavioral, and life sciences.

Discovery/Discussion/Writing problems at the end of every section encourage students to use and develop conceptual, critical thinking, and writing skills.

Discovery Projects engage students by providing a challenging but accessible set of activities that enable them (perhaps working in groups) to explore in greater depth an interesting aspect of the topic they have just learned.

Review Sections and Chapter Tests at the end of each chapter help students gauge their learning progress. Brief answers to the odd-numbered exercises in each section and to all questions in the Chapter Tests are provided at the back of the book.

New Exercises: More than 20% of the exercises are new, and groups of exercises now have headings that identify the type of exercise. New Skills Plus exercises in most sections contain more challenging exercises that require students to extend and synthesize concepts.

Review Material: The review material at the end of each chapter now includes a summary of properties and formulas and a new Concept Check. Each Concept Check provides a step-by-step review of all the main concepts and applications of the chapter. Answers to the Concept Check questions are on tear-out sheets at the back of the book.

Discovery Projects: References to Discovery Projects, including brief descriptions of the content of each project, are located in boxes where appropriate in each chapter. These boxes highlight the applications of precalculus in many different real-world contexts. (The projects are located at the book companion website www.stewartmath.com).

Geometry Review: A new Appendix A contains a review of the main concepts of geometry used in this book, including similarity and the Pythagorean Theorem.