List of Figures
Preface
1 A Few Rules of Logic
1 1.1 True and False Statements
1.2 General and Particular Cases
1.3 “If... then” Statements
1.4 Combining “or”, “and”, and Negation
1.5 Logic Lingo
1.6 No Contradictions Are Allowed
1.7 The Need for Existence
1.8 What is Typically Proved?
1.9 Types of Proofs
Exercises
2 Numbers
2.1 Natural Numbers and Primes
2.2 Integers
2.3 Rational Numbers
2.4 The Decimal Representation
2.4.1 Decimal Representation of Integers
2.4.2 Decimal Representation of Rational Numbers
2.5 Irrational Numbers
2.5.1 Mixing Rational and Irrational Numbers
2.6 Two Theorems about Real Numbers
2.7 Complex Numbers
2.8 How Many Numbers Are There?
2.8.1 Sets
2.8.2 How Many Rational Numbers Are There?
2.8.3 How Many Real Numbers Are There?
2.8.4 Cardinality of Real Numbers in an Interval
2.8.5 Points on a Plane
2.8.6 Numbers That We Can Define
2.8.7 The Completeness of Real Numbers
Exercises
3 Inequalities
3.1 Basic Properties
3.2 Several Theorems
3.3 Several Inequalities
3.3.1 A Sum of Absolute Values
3.3.2 The Arithmetic Mean
3.3.3 The Geometric Mean
3.3.4 The Harmonic Mean
3.3.5 The Quadratic Mean
3.3.6 Inequalities for the Four Means
3.3.7 Bernoulli’s inequality
3.3.8 The Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality
Exercises
4 Functions
4.1 Definition and Examples
4.2 Odd and Even Functions
4.3 Composite Functions
4.4 Monotonic Functions
4.5 Inverse Functions
4.5.1 Inverse of an Inverse
4.5.2 Inverse of a Composite Function
4.6 Applying a Function to both Sides of an Inequality
4.7 Concave and Convex Functions
Exercises
5 Polynomials
5.1 Definition and Examples
5.2 Binomial Expansion
5.3 Pascal’s Triangle
5.4 Adding and Multiplying Polynomials
5.5 When Are Two Polynomials Equal?
5.6 Roots
5.7 The Polynomial Remainder Theorem
5.8 The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
5.9 Vieta’s Theorem
Exercises
6 Power Law, Exponents, and Logarithms
6.1 Integer Exponents
6.2 Radicals as Inverse Exponents
6.3 Rational Exponents
6.4 From Rational to Real Exponents
6.5 The Exponential Function
6.5.1 The Number e
6.6 Properties of the Exponential Function
6.7 Is the Exponent Monotonic?
6.8 Logarithms
6.9 The Base of the Logarithmic Function
Exercises
7 Trigonometry
7.1 How to Use Algebra for Solving Problems in Geometry
7.2 Measuring Angles
7.3 Adding and Subtracting Angles
7.4 The Sine and Cosine Functions
7.5 Most Common Trigonometric Identities
7.6 Inverse Trigonometric Functions
7.7 Other Trigonometric Functions
7.8 Polar Coordinates
7.9 Cosine of the Difference of Two Angles
7.10 Back to the Identities for Complementary Angles
7.11 Sine of a Sum of Two Angles
7.12 Sine and Cosine of a Double Angle
7.13 One Way to Compute Trigonometric Functions
7.14 More Trigonometric Identities
7.14.1 Tangent of a Sum of Angles
7.14.2 Sine of a Half-Angle
7.14.3 Cosine of a Half-Angle
7.14.4 Sums and Differences of Trigonometric Functions
7.14.5 Products of Trigonometric Functions
7.15 Multiplication of Complex Numbers
7.16 Back to the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra
7.17 Euler’s Formula
7.18 Three Trigonometric Inequalities
7.19 Analytical Geometry
Exercises
8 Conic Sections
8.1 Cone and Plane Definitions
8.2 Metric Definitions
8.3 Focus and Directrix Definitions
8.4 Algebraic Definitions
8.5 Equivalency of Definitions 1 and 2
8.6 Equivalency of Definitions 2 and 4
8.7 Equivalency of Definitions 3 and 4
8.8 Conics in Polar Coordinates
8.9 Ray Reflections by Conics
8.10 The Design of X-Ray Telescopes
Exercises
9 Sequences and Sums
9.1 Arithmetic Sequence
9.2 Geometric Sequence
9.3 Infinite Sequences
9.4 Limits: Definition
9.5 Does the Geometric Sequence Converge?
9.6 Arithmetic Operations for Sequences
9.7 Monotone and Bounded Sequences
9.8 The Bolzano-Weierstrass Theorem
9.9 More on the Ratio of Two Sequences
9.10 A Sequence with Nested Radicals
9.11 More Sequences with Nested Radicals
9.12 The Limit for the Base of Natural Logarithms
9.13 Partial Sums and Infinite Series
9.14 The Harmonic Series
9.15 The Harmonic Sequence and Prime Numbers
9.16 Intuition May Fail Us for Infinite Series
9.17 Sometimes Neglecting Rigor Is a Good Thing
Exercises
10 The Fibonacci Sequence
10.1 Cassini’s Identity
10.2 The Golden Ratio
10.3 The Golden Ratio via Nested Radicals
10.4 Successive Powers
10.5 A Proof of Convergence
10.6 More about Successive Powers
10.7 Integers as Sums of Fibonacci Numbers
10.8 The Partial Sum of Fibonacci Numbers
10.9 Continued Fractions
10.10 Linking Geometric and Fibonacci Sequences
10.11 Two Related Sequences
10.11.1 Lucas Numbers
10.11.2 Pell Numbers
Exercises
Conclusion
Further Reading
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Alexandr Draganov holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford. After a career in high-tech, he pivoted to teaching and writing.
