Dr. Jorge Alberto Calvo's interest in mathematical problem solving started at a young age. When he was just ten, he solved the Rubik's Cube puzzle on national television in just over one minute, thereby becoming the unofficial cubing champion of Costa Rica. People in his home town of Moravia still stop him in the street and say, "I remember when you were a little kid and you did that thing with the cube on TV." He continued his mathematical career by earning his S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He taught at Williams College and North Dakota State University before joining the faculty at Ave Maria University, where he serves as an Associate Professor of Mathematics. In addition, he has received several academic awards and has published a number of research articles on geometric knot theory. However, it seems that people at cocktail parties are only ever interested in his Rubik's Cube feats.
Welcome to our mathematical tour! The theme of this book centers around the concept of function, a mathematical idea that has become increasingly important over the past two centuries. In these pages, you will read about many of the topics commonly covered in courses with impressive-sounding titles like College Algebra, Trigonometry, and Precalculus. It is my hope that after reading this book you will be prepared -- and perhaps even want -- to move on to a course in Calculus.
This book was originally written as a blueprint for a university-level course satisfying the core curriculum and emphasizing the liberal arts identity at Ave Maria University.
For a solutions manual, please contact the author at jorge.calvo@avemaria.edu.
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