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Introduction
This book is intended as a refresher course for scientists, engineers, and technicians. It
begins with a review of basic calculation techniques and progresses through intermediate
topics in applied mathematics. This edition contains new or revised material on scientific
notation, geometry, trigonometry, vectors, coordinate systems, logarithms, exponential
functions, propositional logic, truth tables, statistics, and probability.
You’ll notice that some of the discussions, especially in the early chapters, deal with
archaic units such as feet and pounds. This isn’t sheer madness or nostalgia for the
olden days; there is a reason for it! The unfamiliarity (and in some cases strangeness)
of these “English” units can help you more fully grasp the principles relating the phenomena
the units describe.
Ideally, you’ll have worked with all the material you’ll see in this book, or at least
seen it in some form. If something here is alien to you—for example, propositional
logic—consider taking a formal course on that subject, using this book as a supplement.
What if you took logic from your Alma Mater 20 years ago? Are the concepts
still in your mind but no longer fresh? In that sort of situation, this book can
bring things back into focus, so you can again work easily with concepts you
learned long ago.
Each chapter ends with a Questions and Problems section. Refer to the text when
solving these problems. Answers are in an appendix at the back of the book. In some
cases, descriptions of the problem-solving processes are given in the answer key. Of
course, many problems can be solved in more than one way. If you get the right
answer by a method that differs from the scheme in the answer key, you might have
found a better way!
In recent years, electronic calculators have rendered much of the material in this book
academic. To find the sine of an angle, for example, you can punch it up on a calculator
you bought at a grocery store and get an answer accurate to 10 significant figures.
Personal computers have “calculator” programs that can go to many more digits than
that. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to understand the theory involved. You should at least
read (if not painstakingly study) every chapter in this book.
Most people are strong in certain areas of mathematics and weak in others. If your job
involves the use of math, you’ll need proficiency in some fields more than in others.
When you use this book as a refresher course, keep in mind that you might need intensive
work on subjects that you don’t like or that you have trouble grasping.
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