Stitz Zeager Open Source Mathematics

Edition 3 is ready!

2011-07-07T17:38:00.003-04:00

Hi, folks!

Our "3"rd edition materials are now available!

Download the complete Precalculus book (College Algebra and Trig) at

www.stitz-zeager.com

If you'd prefer a "dead" tree copy, head on over to lulu.com. There, you'll find quality, royalty free copies.

College Algebra

Trigonometry

Here's a fun little "promotional" video: http://youtu.be/_y-_QaFIGQg

Coming Very Soon!

2011-07-04T11:08:00.001-04:00

Hi, folks!

I'm very happy to report Precalculus, 3rd Edition, will be posted on our website within a week! There are also some other exciting developments underway! Stay tuned! Thank you for your support of our work!

Refresh your bookmark to our main site: www.stitz-zeager.com

NGLC Grant and Updates!

2011-04-28T18:12:00.002-04:00

Hi, folks! I am proud to announce that our Precalculus textbook is a integral (pun intended?) part of OhioLINK's "Scaffold to the Stars" NGLC grant. It is a $750,000 grant which, in part, aims to radically improve our book by providing funds to Jeff and me for revising the manuscript this summer as well as for other folks on the grant team to find multimedia resources to enhance the book. Don't worry - the text will still be available for free from www.stitz-zeager.com and for a cost-to-print price at lulu.com.

Thanks for your support of our work!

How we'll spend our summer vacation... (or part of it!)

2011-02-19T10:06:00.001-05:00

Hi, folks! Jeff and I are reserving six weeks of our summer (mid-May through July 1st) for revising and updating the Precalculus book. We would welcome any suggestions! Feel free to contact us at:

carl@stitz-zeager.com

Thanks for your support of the project!

Join us for our Webinar on January 13th!

2011-01-09T09:58:00.001-05:00

Join us for our first Webinar about our work! Click the link below!

Stitz Zeager Open Access Precalculus Project

Thanks for a wonderful year!

2010-12-23T17:04:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note of "Thanks" to all of you who are supporting our endeavors. On average, we receive an e-mail every two weeks from folks who have just found our stuff and from other folks who are using it and are helping to improve it! Jeff and I will be revisiting our Precalculus textbook this summer, and we will have an expanded version available come Fall. Until then, remember that all of your comments and suggestions are welcome. Once again, thank you so very much for your support, and Happy Holidays!

Find us on Facebook!

2010-08-28T16:04:00.002-04:00

We've had a facebook page for some time now, but I finally remembered to post it here. If you're a fb user, consider visiting our page!

The Stitz Zeager Open Source Precalculus Project Page

It's Official... Precalculus now available!

2010-08-26T02:18:00.001-04:00

It's official! Visit www.stitz-zeager.com to download our first edited version of Precalculus as well as the corresponding source code. Videos to accompany Chapters 10 and 11 will be posted as I teach Trig this semester.

Precalculus - Preliminary Version - Now Posted!

2010-08-20T18:08:00.003-04:00

Hi, folks!

School started for my co-author this week, and my school starts Monday, so the Precalculus book is as done as it's gonna get for the time being. All sections of the book except 11.6 (rotation of axes and polar form of conics) have been edited. There is homework and exercises for ALL sections (though the stuff in 11.6 is a little lean...) There's a chance Jeff may get around to editing 11.6 this weekend, but regardless, I'll have links to lulu.com copies of Chapters 10 and 11 as well as all the source code posted by Monday. So, that's how I spent my summer vacation! Enjoy the fruits of our labor at www.stitz-zeager.com.

Nearing the Finish Line...

2010-08-16T16:04:00.002-04:00

Hi, folks! Great news - I will be posting the preliminary version of Stitz Zeager Precalculus this coming weekend. Our Precalculus book is our College Algebra book with two added Chapters: Chapter 10: Foundations of Trigonometry and Chapter 11: Applications of Trigonometry. Chapters 10 and 11 add roughly 300 pages of material and will be available from lulu.com as a separate book. (The page limit for publishing at lulu is something like 740 pages.) Thanks for your support of the project!

Chapter 10 Available for Download!

2010-07-23T15:06:00.002-04:00

Chapter 10 is edited and posted on our site! Click here to visit our site and download it.

Foundations of Trigonometry is Done - Now for Applications...

2010-07-06T15:04:00.006-04:00

Hi, folks! With a heavy sigh of relief, I am pleased to report that the I finished the manuscript for the first half of the Trig book. "Foundations of Trigonometry" is 150 pages which comprises the math foundations of trigonometry: angles and their measure, the circular functions, identities, graphs of the circular functions, the inverse circular functions, and equations and inequalities. I am very proud of it, and will post it on the website as soon Jeff is finished with the editing and exercises. My next big task is to write the "Applications" chapter. This chapter will contain the Law of Sines, Law of Cosines, Applications of Sinusoids, Polar Coordinates, Vectors, and Parametric Equations. Still quite a bit to do, but I truly believe the "hard" part is done. Everything from here on out will be reaping the hard work I put into Chapter 10. Onwards and upwards!

Channel 3 News!

2010-06-23T22:21:00.001-04:00

The book was featured this evening on the 6 o'clock news on WKYC Channel 3. Click here for the link!

New Version is Up!

2010-06-21T02:59:00.004-04:00

Hi, folks! The new version of the College Algebra book is posted. The most substantial work was done in Chapter 8, matrices. Check it out at www.stitz-zeager.com. Also, you'll note the new print version at lulu.com has a cool new cover - it was designed by Dario R., a former student who took the class last Spring. Follow the lulu.com link on our page to check it out! I am currently editing Chapter 10 (the first chapter of the Trig book!) and am on track to have the Trig Chapters done by the end of August. I'll be class testing the Trig book then.

Awards and updates...

2010-06-05T11:28:00.003-04:00

Hi, folks!

Jeff and I have received numerous accolades for our book! Click here to read the press release from the University System of Ohio's website! How exciting! Look for an updated version of the book during the first week of July. We aim to fix some lingering typos and add some more word problems. The Trigonometry Text is evolving and should be ready mid-August. Thanks to all who support the project!

Skipping into Chapter 12...

2010-04-06T07:44:00.000-04:00

Owing to the onerous amount of committee work and related disasters, Jeff and I have decided for me to skip to writing the section about vectors and leave the rest of the book unwritten until summer. This has been a very frustrating and difficult decision for me, but in the end, it's the only way to survive the semester. I plan to flesh out the Trig book by July 1 at which point Jeff and I will revise the entire College Algebra and Trigonometry Text. Our plan is to finish an update by August 1st.

Apologies to our case-sensitive friends...

2010-03-28T11:53:00.003-04:00

To distract myself from writer's block and the unending pile of grading I have before me, I installed Ubuntu Linux as a VM on my MacBook pro and have spent my "free" time the past week figuring out how to compile our book using TeXLive 2009 and Kile. To all those fans of the book who use Linux - I had no idea Windows was case insensitive! I am in the process of updating all the .jpg files that accompany the source code so that they will load correctly. I will be switching to Ubuntu completely over the summer, so things like this should no longer be an issue!

Moving into Chapter 11...

2010-03-22T10:35:00.002-04:00

Spring Break allowed me to finish drafts of sections 10.5 and 11.1. Balancing quality and deadlines is altogether difficult for me. We have now passed the 100 page mark in Trigonometry, and we will see how the rest of the semester goes! I hope to start in on 11.2 Tuesday night. Today will be full enough getting everything ready for the rest of the week at school.

Ported over all the OLD posts...

2010-02-22T00:41:00.001-05:00

I finally ported over all my old sabbatical blog posts from my MobileMe account... now you can follow the entire genesis of the book in one convenient place!

Has it been a month already?

2010-02-21T23:39:00.002-05:00

Time flies when you're having fun... or when you need more of it. This last month has been punctuated by illness, fatigue, and the usual school nonsense. Writing a book on sabbatical is one thing; writing to keep up with Jeff's class while teaching 17 hours is quite another. To say I am weary is an understatement. The preliminary version of 10.4 (Identities) is off to Jeff for edits and exercises. I revamped our website and added a page for Jeff's students. You can visit it here for the latest progress on the Trig portion of the book. Section 10.5 needs to be ready in a week, and it will cover graphs of the circular functions and will finish Chapter 10. I hope to "cash in" on all my work from Section 1.8 (in particular, the final theorem of that section!) and apart from introducing some terminology, make quick work of it. I am about a week ahead of Jeff's class, and am hoping to make hay during Spring "Break." How many weeks until Summer? Not enough.

10.2 is off to Jeff!

2010-01-25T10:58:00.002-05:00

After several long weeks, I have sent 10.2 off to Jeff for edits and exercises. The first two sections of Trig total 30 pages... I hope the remaining sections will go more smoothly (and more quickly!) You can view the work-in-progress here. In other news, Jeff and I have been nominated for Ohio's Faculty Innovator Awards. We will know if we win by the end of March.

Section 10.1 is off to Jeff...

2009-12-29T12:06:00.002-05:00

It is with great pleasure that I announce that I have submitted section 10.1 to Jeff for edits and exercises. I have also set-up a semi-secret page on stitz-zeager.com where you can preview the Trig portion of the book as it evolves. You can access the preview page here. I spent the better part of three weeks getting this section the way I wanted it, and I think it will pay off in the end. I am positioned perfectly at the end of 10.1 to introduce the circular functions sine and cosine. I firmly believe that if the first two sections of Trig are "done right," everything else will follow easily.

Version Square Root Two ready to go...

2009-12-11T00:12:00.003-05:00

Hi folks! Version 1.414.... is now ready! Thanks to Bill Previts (a Lakeland colleague), the number of exercises in each section has nearly doubled! And thanks to Dimitri Moonen, we have fixed the 50 or so typos found in the book so far. For those who wish a printed copy, Jeff and I are using lulu.com to host our book. We don't make any profit on the book (and from what book reps have told us, at $14 a book, neither does lulu.com!) All the details are found at www.stitz-zeager.com Now that the semester is over (and there was much rejoicing!) I can settle back to working on Trigonometry in earnest. Check back for weekly updates on that project!

Here we go again...

2009-11-20T02:09:00.002-05:00

As the semester winds down, it's time to start gearing up for work on the book! Version 1.414... should be available by 12/18. Look for fixed typos and some beefier exercise sets. Then, of course, it's time to really get working on Trigonometry. I've written a whopping 7 pages of Trig this semester, but I plan to make hay during our 5 week break. Also, I'm teaching two sections of College Algebra come Spring, which means those MathCast videos will start to appear on YouTube to accompany the text. Jeff and I have blocked off a big chunk of the summer for a thorough revision, so come Fall 2010, we expect to have something close to a version 2 (a complete Precalculus book) available. For those of you who want a low-cost printed version, I'll soon be posting how to get the book from lulu.com. Delivered, the book is around $20. It is being offered royalty free (so Jeff and I aren't making any profit on it!), and for those of you who want a printed copy, I believe it's much cheaper than printing it out on your own. Until then... thank you all for supporting this project!

Many thanks...

2009-09-30T23:24:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone for their very kind comments! The popularity of the book is growing faster than I could have ever dreamed!!! We have had some issues with the Scribd.com website - but everything should be resolved in the near future. For now, though, www.stitz-zeager.com remains the best place to download the book (and source code!) for free.

UPDATE - Everything with scribd.com is straightened out!

Onwards and Upwards...

2009-08-13T09:24:00.001-04:00

Despite a glowing recommendation from my Dean to be granted release time to write the accompanying Trigonometry book, my provost denied it because it would, ostensibly, create a "bad precedent." I was devastated by the news, but, in the end, he's right. I have seen so many fellow faculty abuse the contract at school that I can totally understand his decision. But, the work goes on! Jeffy thinks we can pull it off this semester - I, on the other hand, am not that optimistic. In any case, I will start writing Trigonometry tonight after Taylor goes to bed. If I average a section a week, I should be in good shape come January. Thanks to everyone who supports this project!

The book is done! (For now...)

2009-08-10T00:07:00.004-04:00

That's right! Final edits on the book are DONE! Check out www.stitz-zeager.com for the official version 1.0 of the textbook, along with up-to-date source code AND instructional videos how to compile it (for the LaTeX savvy...)

It has been a long, long, journey.

What's next?

Trigonometry, of course.

:-)

Final edits are underway!

2009-08-04T23:34:00.002-04:00

Jeff and I have met for three marathon days of editing... and are now done with "final edits" through Chapter 5. Updated homework sections and all the nice "finishing touches" are there! We plan to post our final version 1 (well, 0.99999...) 8/10. The most recent version of the book is on scribd.com and, of course, at www.stitz-zeager.com

Finishing touches...

2009-07-28T21:07:00.002-04:00

Jeffrey's nearly done with Chapter 8 edits and exercises and will move into Chapter 9 shortly. Updates can be found on the scribd.com website as well as stitz-zeager.com. I am expanding some of the exercise sets along with the help of my good friend and colleague, Bill Previts. Bill has offered to class test the book for Fall. I hope to get release time to write the Trig book during Fall - otherwise this Fall will be super busy... (but then again, they always are!)

Horses? In Perivale? Don't be stupid.

2009-07-20T23:19:00.003-04:00

I am happy to report that tonight, I finished section 9.4 thereby putting a "wrap" on the first draft of all of the sections of the College Algebra Book. Jeff is making good progress on Chapter 8 and is about 2/3 of the way through it. The newest version of the book which includes 9.4 and all of the latest and greatest edits and exercises can be found at scribd.com and, of course, at stitz-zeager.com

The title of this post is one of my all time favorite quotes from "Doctor Who." It is from the last of the "Classic" Stories from 1989, ironically titled "Survival." It represents for me the incredulity Jeff and I still encounter from time to time concerning this project. "Really, you're writing a WHOLE College Algebra book on sabbatical? And you're GIVING it away?"

Horses? In Perivale? Don't be stupid.

Journey's End

2009-07-14T12:59:00.005-04:00

Today I begin writing the last section of the College Algebra book. The sections on series (9.2) and induction (9.3) are now in Jeff's hands. I was disappointed that, ultimately, the proofs of determinant properties are still out of reach for College Algebra students even WITH induction owing to the notation involved. Believe me, I spent hours trying to figure out a clean, elegant way to prove some of these things, but I think proving those properties in general is what makes Linear Algebra, inpart, a junior level course. I did manage to sneak in a proof of one of the determinant properties, though. The latest version of the book can be found at scribd.com and on the newly-revamped website, http://www.stitz-zeager.com/. Jeff and I are meeting again Friday, and who knows, maybe I'll have 9.4 done by then. :-)

41 down... 3 to go!

2009-07-07T14:08:00.004-04:00

Jeff and I met this morning and I am thrilled to report Section 9.1 (seqeunces) is complete! I am now working on Section 9.2 (Series) and hope to have that done by the weekend. Talking things through with Jeff in person always helps me get centered on things, and I am so glad we timed our sabbaticals for the same semester so we can have that collaboration. I honestly don't think this project would have ever seen the light of day had I just gone solo on it. The most recent incarnation of the book is posted on scribd.com here. I have been toying with our website www.stitz-zeager.com and adding "metatext" so the search engines can find it easier. I need to figure how to do this on iWeb (or may abandon that program altogether!) Anyway, my first concern is getting the book done. Messing with the website is good when I get writer's block :-)

Starting Chapter 9...

2009-07-02T07:57:00.002-04:00

I finally started Chapter 9 this week! Granted, only a page or so of it is written, but it is a great feeling to start the last chapter of the book! Jeff finished Chapter 7 exercises (with a nice problem about locating the epicenter of an earthquake!) I have taken the last two nights off from the book and tried to catch up on my sleep. I must have done so, because here I am, at 8 AM, blogging! I am learning all kinds of things about webpages - including how to include "metatext" to increase the probability it will turn up on a search engine. It may take a few days, but I'm hoping if someone does a search for "free college algebra book," our page makes it. (If you type that in google now, one of the first hits is a free Linear Algebra book...)

I hope to finish 9.1 this weekend and start 9.2. My new deadline is to have Chapter 9 written by 7/15 and give myself and Jeff a week of reading through the entire manuscript fixing it up and then sending it out to some reviewers. Some of my colleagues have shown an interest in using it in the Fall, and I trust them to give me good, honest feedback. The latest and greatest version of the book can be found on the scribd.com site here. Happy 4th of July!

All good things...

2009-06-23T15:25:00.003-04:00

I am delighted to announce the launch of www.stitz-zeager.com Withonly 5 sections to go on the manuscript (for the College Algebra book, that is!) I decided it was time to figure out how to distribute the source code. This site will eventually have a forum to accompany it and I am overwhelmed and excited about what the future holds! Thanks to all of you who have followed this blog. I will still post the occasional update here, but plan to transition all of it to the new site by Fall.

Another section down...

2009-06-18T10:41:00.002-04:00

We're calling 8.4 done. My proudest moment this week has to be learning how to use the makecirc package to draw circuit diagrams. My dean gave us a couple of very nice examples and I took one of them and used it in the book. I am not only proud of the diagram, but the example in general. I had planned to finish the section with a follow-up to the rotation matrix example in 8.3 - but as I was writing it, I realized it would make a very good HW question, so I'm leaving it for that. Jeff's been editing the Conics chapter, and since I wrote that back in December 08, he's having all sorts of fun going through pretty archaic code. It's a testament to how much LaTeX we have learned these past six months! In the editing process, he's managed to fix the spacing issues and saved us a few pages here and there. Circles, Parabolas, and Ellipses (oh, my!) look great! The current version of the book can be found here.

8.3 is done!

2009-06-10T23:14:00.003-04:00

The most recent version of the book is here. Chapter 6 is now fully edited and exercises are complete (thanks, Jeffy!) and I think they are swesome! I also finished the first draft of 8.3. This section reminded me a lot of 8.1 in that it took me quite a while to complete, but, in the end, I'm pretty proud of it. I have been pulling a lot of late nights writing until 1:30 or 2 AM. As a result, I'm pretty exhausted this week and am taking the night off - turning in at an "early" midnight - 12:30. (I think Conan does a nice job with The Tonight Show -what can I say!)

Faling behind schedule...

2009-06-04T09:57:00.002-04:00

My dean has a saying: any progress is good progress. And while that's true, I'm still falling behind in Chapter 8. I did add/change stuff in 8.1 so I like it now and 8.2 has also been shipped off to Jeff. I'm hoping to take care of 8.3 today and will try and have a chunk of 8.4 done by Tuesday (which is when I had wanted to have all of Chapter 8 done.) The book will be done before Fall, which suppose is the "ultimate deadline" but I really wanted it done by July. The current incarnation of the book is here. Teachers and students alike may enjoy my mixture problem at the end of 8.1. It's the classic "make an acid solution" problem... with a twist!

And, as I continue to surf the nostalgia wave in an attempt to recenter myself, I have tracked down one of my favorite movie moments of all time here.

"Falkor, it's like the Nothing never was."

Awesome.

8.1 is finally done!

2009-05-29T01:35:00.002-04:00

Reading the last post, you may have wondered why it's been so long since an update... well 8.1 continued to give me troubles until today when it finally "gelled." We'll see what Jeff thinks about it before I post an update to the book. Speaking of Jeff, he knocked out a couple of excellent sections of exercise sets today. I'll be uploading an updated version of the book by early next week. I think 8.1 gave me trouble for the same reason 2.1 did - it starts with review material, which I hate re-hashing. In the end, I think it moves into the "college" level algebra without mucking about too long in Elementary Algebra. Time will tell, it always does.

Law of Inertia

2009-05-22T00:53:00.000-04:00

An object in motion tends to stay in motion... or so I've been told. To my surprise and delight, I am a fair ways into Section 8.1, and, though it took some time to decide how to properly blend the review with the new, it's now practically writing itself. I sunk into a terrible funk the past two days, but, true to their nature, my friends and students (not mutually exclusive groups, mind you) have come through yet again and given me my 117th second wind. True, I may not earn $50,000 teaching summer classes like some of my dear colleagues, but, I'll have so much fun spending days with Taylor and evenings with my dear students in Differential Equations. And, from 9 PM to midnight, there's the book which is really a labor of love and less a project for Professional Leave. I am having the time of my life.

7 Chapters Down...

2009-05-19T15:38:00.002-04:00

Jeff and I had an original deadline of today for Chapter 6 to be done, and I am happy to report, I finished up 6.5 today. The current version of the book is here. I think our book is the only book out there that still talks about using logs to linearize data to come up with power models and exponential models. We spend the last few pages of Chapter 6 looking at Swine Flu data and trying to fit the right model to the data. Good, solid fun.

Tribute to Aunt Jan

2009-05-14T07:44:00.002-04:00

It is with deep sadness that I tell you all that my dear Aunt Jan passed away last evening from Cancer at the very young age of 58. I have many fond memories of Aunt Jan. She was one of those people who always made you feel at home and was genuinely interested in what you were doing and what you had to say. Even when she was sick, she took the time to read this blog and asked me about some things in it when I last saw her on Easter Saturday. She taught Math part-time at Kent State Stark campus alongside my Uncle, and I always considered both of them my colleagues. I would ask that you keep my Uncle and their three children in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Carl

Closing in on 7 Chapters

2009-05-12T11:02:00.004-04:00

Jeffrey and I met yesterday and, among other things, fleshed out the Trig table of contents. If we can keep up the 2 sections per week pace, we should be done with Algebra by the end of June and Trig by the beginning of September. I am hoping to finish 6.5 this week, and that'll be it for Chapter 6. Chapter 7's narrative is done, so I can begin next week on Chapter 8. I am dreading Chapter 8 for unknown reasons, but I'm sure I'll be fine when I actually start in on it. The latest version has been posted here. In other news, I finally figured out the settings to export my videos so YouTube (1280 x 720) is happy with them. I am in the midst of batch converting my Calc 3 videos from Spring (yes, I taught a course on sabbatical - surprise!) and am uploading them. To view them in the best quality, click the "HD" button and full screen. Enjoy the first one here. I hope to get a playlist / channel set-up once everything's converted and uploaded.

Another update...

2009-05-07T10:23:00.004-04:00

Section 6.3 is now off to Jeffrey for edits. It not only covers exponential equations, but also inequalities (done analytically, I might add, using sign diagrams!) Enjoy the latest iteration here. There is a footnote in 6.3 which really summarizes my feelings towards the book and all those who complain that our approach is, in some sense, too "mathy" for today's college students... (oh, and I assure you, they abound!) I hope to finish 6.4 by Monday, which means I am on track to finish Chapter 6 a bit ahead of schedule. Chapter 7 (the conics) was the first chapter I wrote back in December / January, and it is a great feeling of accomplishment to have come full circle. (So much for those who figured I'd only get a chapter or two done at most!) I am hopeful that Chapters 8 and 9 will go relatively quickly (the topics aren't as "heavy" as the other stuff) and Jeff and I have already started talking about our plans for Trigonometry, which we hope to start in July.

This is my last post on sabbatical. Next week, the title of the Blog will change to indicate my new status. It has been an incredibly busy, yet rewarding experience. Working with Jeff has been great, and I am very optimistic about the book's success.

International Exposure...

2009-05-04T09:37:00.002-04:00

According to scribd.com, someone linked to our humble College Algebra book from google.com.eg - that's Google's Egyptian site! How cool is that! Last week I managed to get the drafts of 6.1 and 6.2 done. I had hoped for more since Taylor spent the week at her grandparents. I wrote 6.1 in two days... but it took me 4 to write 6.2 (which is nowhere near as long or complicated.) Whoever said a book was written "one page at a time" never wrote a math book - it's more like "one sentence at a time." Still, the effort seems to be worth it. One of Jeff's colleagues wrote very complimentary things about the book in Jeff's annual review. My favorite quote from that document is:

"But being available for free, as commendable as it is, is definitely not the best feature of this book. The authors have made a preliminary version available (I have read chapters 1 through 4, and 7) and there is no doubt that it will be an outstanding book. It is beautifully written, and explains all the concepts in great detail and with excellent examples and related exercises. The interested student will have a unique resource that can be used as a textbook in a course and also for self-study. The book is very readable and is written with such attention to detail, and to the objective of deep conceptual understanding, that it will be a perfect learning tool for the dedicated student."

The most recent version has been uploaded here. Technically, sabbatical ends this week. I sent an update to the Dean and the Provost with all of my activities this semester. I'd hate for them to think Lakeland didn't get their money's worth :-)

Chapter 5 is Done!

2009-04-28T02:12:00.002-04:00

Yes, I know it's late... or early, even. But I got on a roll, and hey, the draft of Chapter 5 is now done! There are some spacing issues with the equation arrays, but Jeffrey is a whiz with \extrarowheight and the like, and so he'll get them looking great! Today (I guess technically yesterday?) Jeffrey and I finished ret-conning (that's a comic book word) Transformations (which were originally in Chapter 5) back into chapters 2, 3, and 4. In addition to a finished draft of Chapter 5, you'll see a fully edited Chapter 4 and updates on the exercises. All this, and more, can be enjoyed here.

Taylor's Tooth!!!

2009-04-21T07:52:00.003-04:00

Taylor woke up today a little before 7 AM (Yawn!) with exciting news... her first ever baby tooth is now a loose tooth!!! Any minute, I expect her to asking to borrow the car to head off to college. (Sigh.)

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are done... AGAIN!

2009-04-19T11:26:00.003-04:00

Hi folks!

With a sigh of relief, I am happy to report that I finished my narrative for Section 1.8 (nee Section 5.1) and have ret-conned it into sections 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 3.1. Section 1.8 is a colossal 20 pages with over 50 graphs - no wonder it took me nearly 2 weeks to write! Since most of it is pictures, however, I am confident it will take students less than that to actually read it. I will now see what Jeffrey makes of it all. We will update the exercise sets in those sections accordingly. Today I hope to start working on Chapter 5... AGAIN! Function composition and inverse functions should be a walk in the park; should the operative word. I uploaded the latest revision here.

Surfing the Nostalgia Wave...

2009-04-18T00:59:00.003-04:00

Though I'm not quite done with Transformations yet (the former section 5.1 and the new section 1.8), I have nevertheless uploaded an update here. Adding Transformations to Chapter 1 means I will rewrite some of Chapter 2 (mainly graphing absolute value functions in 2.2) Jeffrey and I will meet Monday so I hope to upload his updates as well Tuesday. The death of my high school physics teacher has triggered a "Nostalgia Wave" and, as always, I have surfed it to YouTube. I have found clips of some of the shows I grew up watching - and the ones that I miss the most are the locally produced shows that were so prevalent in the 70s and 80s but have since disappeared. Enjoy the links below!

Comin' right at ya... The Hot Fudge Show

If anyone calls... Barnaby

Gimme dat shoe! Superhost

Here we go again... Big Chuck and Lil' John

April showers bring sinus headaches...

2009-04-15T09:58:00.007-04:00

Hi folks! Here's hoping you all had a great Easter, and for those of you who celebrate in the Orthodox tradition (Emily, Ivana), I hope you will have a great Easter! The progress on the book has been slow this week. Jeff and I decided to move Transformations from Chapter 5 back to Chapter 1, and I have just been having a heck of a time trying to get it right. I hope to have the draft of it up by the weekend - stay tuned!

Winter's back...

2009-04-07T00:17:00.002-04:00

We have a nice dusting of snow on the ground... again - with 2-4 more inches in the forecast! A late April Fool's Joke? My response is to change the style of my blog to something more Spring-like. I met with Jeffrey today and we agreed to add variation to the end of section 4.3. It fit there about as well as anywhere. I also acquired all of the recent edits and exercises Jeff worked on, and posted a newer version of the book here. Enjoy!

Out like a lion...

2009-04-05T16:43:00.004-04:00

In school I was taught March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb... I guess the author didn't have NE Ohio in mind when they wrote that! My talk at YSU on 3/29 (picture at the left) went well - as far as the students were concerned (and that's what matters!) The book is coming along. I have finished my drafts of Chapters 3 and 4. I have uploaded the most recent revision here. Now that I have discovered how to upload revisions, I will no longer have older editions of the manuscript posted - this should help reduce clutter and it also means you can bookmark one site and check back as often as you like to see the updates. Jeff and I sat down and fleshed out a reasonable schedule for finishing the College Algebra portion of the book, and we are on track for the end of June, with final edits by mid-July. I am pretty happy with how it is shaping up, although I am sure it will be a "living document" in the sense it will be continually updated. I have another Board of Regents meeting in Columbus Friday, and I plan to bring along a print out for some of the other faculty to peruse. The fact that it is available free (and will be open source, to boot!) really makes me happy. Hopefully, people can use it to the benefit of their students. In fitness news, my interval training was taking its toll on my knees, so I ordered some iFit cards for the treadmill which are all power walking routines. The speeds vary from 2-5 mph, but they make ample use of the incline, so I get a pretty good workout.

Busy, busy...

2009-03-22T23:23:00.004-04:00

Another busy week down, and another busy week ahead! I received word that one of my High School Mentors passed away Wednesday evening and that threw me for a loop. The funeral's tomorrow, and I hope that will help bring some closure for me. In other news, I gave the last of my STEM workshops for High School students this past weekend at Lakeland. The feedback from the students and their chaperones was very good, but I am glad it is done. I struggled with the book this past week. The polynomial theory stuff is pretty heavy, so the writing didn't come as easy as it did with other topics. Apart from an anachronous example in section 3.1, however, Jeff and I are pretty pleased with it. You can access the latest version of the book here. Thanks for comments on the last post concerning MathCasts. Here you'll find a screencast of my screencasting demo for Fall 2008 - the powerpoint demo is downloadable and contains hyperlinks to all the goodies I mention therein. Remember that Topology Conference I was invited to speak at? The one at the end of April? Well, surprise - it's THIS coming weekend. At least the organizer of the conference liked the idea of me giving an INTRO talk to STUDENTS instead of a research talk. That doesn't mean I'll be any less stressed out, however :-)

SPRING BREAK!

2009-03-09T21:57:00.006-04:00

Yes, Lakeland is currently enjoy its Spring Break. For me, however, the work continues! The most recent version of the book is found here. It contains my drafts of the end of Chapter 2 and the first two sections in Chapter 3. Since Jeff and I are heading to Columbus on Friday for an OBR meeting, I decided to hold off our meeting this week until then. As a result, I don't have the exercise and edit update Jeffery finished last week, so look for a new update this weekend when I get all the files. In addition to the road trip Friday, I'm giving a talk at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania on Wednesday about making MathCasts. I'm looking forward to it primarily because I get a free meal with my dear friend from graduate school, Emily. Speaking of Emily, she's the one who snapped the picture above of me and three of my students who attended this year's YSU PME Conference a few weeks back. I am flanked by two Math Majors, each of whom gave a wonderful talk at the conference, along with a budding Chemist (who really could be a Math Major, if he wanted.) Speaking of Youngstown, I will be returning to YSU at the end of April to present something Topology-related. I was invited to participate in a Symposium the weekend of 4/24 and this afternoon I unearthed my dissertation and am now faced with the task of re-learning the math I created 9 years ago... I think I was much smarter then. There is a student session on 4/25, so I am considering putting together a student-friendly survey of Knot Theory geared towards the students instead of a research-heavy presentation. In other news, despite a year or so of neglect, my dentist gave me a very good bill of dental health today. I always knew flossing was overrated...

Moving on over...

2009-03-03T13:05:00.003-05:00

Hi, folks! Since my MobileMe Mac account is about to expire, and I'm too cheap to shell out $100 for a renewal, I am moving my Blog to Blogger. I found a nice website to post the Book, Scribd, and you can enjoy the most recent incarnation of the book here. As you can see, the narratives for three chapters are now finished (Chapters 1, 2, and 7), and Jeff's putting the finishing touches on the formatting and exercises in Chapter 1. We have invested quite a bit of time on the more technical - publishing - end of the book, but it pays. The more we know, the faster it goes...

Moving right along...

2009-02-23T00:35:00.000-05:00

Jeff and I met for a very productive day in Kent. We tweaked the book.cls file and played with the sectsty.sty file, so now I think we have things looking the way Jeff - I mean we - want :-) We also reorganized some of the material in Chapter 1. We separated Function Arithmetic into its own section and took the material in the Distance Section and added it to section 1.1. I completed my drafts of 2.2 and 2.3 and have sent them off to Jeffrey. The current incarnation of the book can be found here. My goal for the upcoming week is to finish drafts of 2.4 and 2.5 by next Monday. The more we write, the better we get. We may just yet get this book finished by Fall.

Good riddance...

2009-02-16T00:34:00.000-05:00

This past week was, perhaps, the first “bad” week of my sabbatical. The rapid changes in weather gave me headaches that no amount of medication could help. We lost power early Thursday AM and were actually trapped in our allotment by a fallen tree until late Thursday PM. Thankfully, my brother Dan and my Father mounted a rescue mission of sorts to deliver propane heaters and take Taylor South where she would be warm and safe. Needless to say, I was happy for the week to end and meet with Jeffrey on Friday. Each week seems to bring with it a new set of technical issues, but we usually have quite a bit of fun trying to sort them all out. The narrative portion of Chapter 1 is done, and Jeff is working on the editing and exercises. In addition, I started in on Chapter 2 this weekend, and have sent my draft of Section 2.1 to Jeff. The current incarnation of the book ishere. (Unfortunately, I neglected to get the updated .tex files from Jeff on Friday which include his wonderful exercise sets for some of the sections in Chapter 1.)

In other news, I finally finished off the iTunes gift card my brother Dan gave me a while back. The cartoon “Star Blazers” is available on iTunes, and it’s quite a bargain! I remember running home from school to try and catch this show. It is an epic space opera, and one of the earliest Japanese-imported Animations. Just listening to it as I write the book takes me back to the old days. It continues to inspire me, too. The Star Force had only 1 year to travel 148,000 light years to Iscandar, retrieve the Cosmo DNA, and get back in time to save Earth - and we have only half that amount of time to finish this book and have it ready for Fall semester. I think we’ll be fine.

Addendum: Jeffrey sent along an updated .pdf of the book which includes his exercise sets. You can enjoy them here.

Closing in on two chapters...

2009-02-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

Friday marked another productive session in Kent. For the time being, Jeffrey’s agreed to do all the editing and write the exercises, while I level up my Dwarf in Lord of the Rings Online - I mean - write the sections. The most recent incarnation of the book can be found here. You’ll notice a tentative table of contents (for the algebra part) as well as some additional completed sections in Chapter 1. My favorite example to date is in the Graphs of Functions section... where the Calculator lies to us. I find writing the book challenging, but rewarding, and have come to the realization that it being offered open source means that if someone wants to use it and doesn’t like some things about it, they can download the source and change it to suit their needs. I think one of the problems with current commercial textbooks is that in order to make a book as marketable as possible, the publishers try to make everyone happy, and end up really serving no one.

Apart from that, I am taking time to “smell the roses” and enjoying not having to deal with Lakeland politics. I enjoy all the time with Taylor, but now have a very deep admiration for stay-at-home parents. And running around Middle Earth with my buddy Kai a couple of times a week just can’t be beat!

Eureka!

2009-01-30T00:33:00.000-05:00

After a morning of troubleshooting and frustration, my co-author and I stumbled across the \mfpicnumber{} command. Using this we managed to fix our problem with the subfolders and graphics! It was a good discussion, and we both learned a heck of a lot about how mfpic and metapost work with pdflatex. After brainstorming many solutions, we happened upon an elegant one: include \mfpicnumber{1} at the beginning of each section. That way, we can modify one section without having to metapost all the others! The current incarnation of the book can be foundhere.

Free and worth every penny...

2009-01-27T00:30:00.000-05:00

Taylor and I were able to take advantage to the balmy 30 degree weather last week and got outside a couple days for some fun snow play. I had forgotten how exhausting snow play can be, but was glad to get out with Taylor for some fresh air.

My earlier boast of mastering subdirectories in LaTeX was shattered tonight as I tried to incorporate mfpic graphics from two different folders... it didn’t go well! At least I now understand the problem - and the only fix I have is to work out of one directory for the whole book. This sounds unmanageable, but I think it will work. The most current incarnation of the book is here. Ultimately, the Distance Section will be in Chapter 1, along with the Cartesian Plane, Relations, and Introduction to Functions sections. The Conics will probably be shifted towards the end of the book, but as it is probably the worst chapter to typeset owing to all the different fiddly bits in their graphs (vertices, foci, etc.) I am glad to have it reasonably under control!

Return to Kent...

2009-01-20T00:29:00.000-05:00

Monday I returned to Kent where I spent an entire day with my co-author on the book. We both learned new things (like how to get \axislabels to work mostly in the manner we’d like) and made some good progress tightening up some spacing issues with the book. The Distance and Circle sections have been through their first edit, and he is working on editing the rest. I am very happy to say that the hours I spent on the “LORAN” type example which concludes the hyperbola section were well spent as I truly believe I have produced something readable and enjoyable. The most recent incarnation of the book can be found here. I plan to spend the rest of the week writing sections on the Cartesian plane, relations, and an introduction to functions. As with anything, I need a break from the Conics before I start working on the exercises in earnest.

Well, today marks the beginning of a new era in Washington - let’s hope and pray our newly elected leaders are up to the challenge! I watched the inaugural ceremonies while working out today and I liked President Obama’s speech. His main asset, I believe, is the ability to inspire - and we could all use some inspiration now and then.

In other news, for good or ill, I am now on Facebook. It seems like a great way to make social connections and waste copious amounts of time - in other words, a great hobby. I think I’ll stick to Lord of the Rings Online, however, as my main way to unwind on-line. Nothin’s more relaxin’ then getting your butt served to you by a Wight Master.

Closing in on one chapter...

2009-01-17T00:29:00.000-05:00

I’m happy to report that I finished a section on Ellipses and have made substantial progress on the Hyperbola section. The most recent incarnation of the book can be found here. I have come to the realization that I could easily spend all semester working on this one chapter alone, but that I need to subdue some of my more perfectionistic tendencies and move forward. After all, the book is meant to be open source, so people (including me!) will have the opportunity to contribute and modify the text as they see fit. The exercise sets for the sections have yet to be written (or even designed!), but I am meeting with my co-author Monday, so I hope we can coordinate our efforts on that front. If we could get this entire chapter wrapped up by Wednesday, I’ll be happy.

It Begins! (Officially...)

2009-01-11T00:28:00.000-05:00

It has been a busy week! I gave two presentation on Screencasting last Thursday at Lakeland’s Technology Expo. It’s how I make my math movies, like the ones you can see here. The interested reader can download my presentation (complete with hyperlinks!) here, or better yet, watch a screencast of the presentation here.

I ventured to Kent on Friday morning to meet with my co-author, Jeff. It was a very fun and productive meeting. The latest incarnation of the book can be found here. We capped it off with a visit to the Franklin Square Deli - my new favorite sandwich shop! I gather the owner’s name is Carl, and, yes, I tried to use this to get a discount, but, no, I didn’t get one.

Friday afternoon, I returned to Lakeland for the STEM Workshops - sessions with area High School students which are funded by House Bill 119. The sessions went very well! The interested reader can download my Energy Presentation here (with accompanying worksheet here) and my Maximum Power presentation here (its accompanying worksheet is here.) They both hit on a wide variety of mathematics applied to energy, and have been pretty successful, in my opinion.

Saturday brought 8 inches of sn*w, but it also heralded my first adventure in Middle Earth playing alongside my good buddy Kai in Lord of the Rings Online. I play a Dwarf Guardian and Kai plays a Dwarf Minstrel. We’re quite a pair! 3 hours and several dead goblins later, we called it quits... for now!

In other news, I am happy to report I have faithfully kept to my exercise and diet regiment and have lost nearly 10 pounds over the last three weeks! I’m hoping to start 2010 at 200 lbs. - which, by all indications, seems a realistic goal.

Well, Sabbatical “officially” begins on the morrow... I’m hoping to get a section on ellipses written by Wednesday... we shall see!

New Year's Surprise!

2009-01-02T00:26:00.000-05:00

Here’s hoping everyone’s 2009 is off to a great start! I had a wonderful end to 2008 when my students threw me a surprise “Thank You” party after our seminar Wednesday evening! It was simply one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me!

As far as the book is concerned, I’ve learned about the \multicols environment and the boxedminipage environment. The former is invaluable in writing exercise sets (to save space, you can have multiple columns of problems instead of just one) and the latter is a neat way to set off important information (like definitions and theorems) in the text. You can see the book in progress here. (Please note that the exercise section isn’t complete yet!)

In other news, if I had the time and talent, I’d love to make an infomercial parody about Voltron’s Blazing Sword: “It can slice through a Doomship and a Robeast and it can still slice a tomato!”

Back to the book...

2008-12-30T00:17:00.000-05:00

I’ve spent the last two days writing the parabolas section. My co-author is very vocal about his dislike of the Conic Sections which is why I’ve been able to get away with working on conics before sabbatical technically begins. The interested reader can see the book in progress here. The new trick I learned in writing this section was the use of the \rotatepath command. You can check out the slick results of using this command by using the hyperlink in the index of the book on “parabola, reflective property.” I have been gently reminded on occasion that I’ve yet to actually define what Conic Sections are, but I will eventually. For a SUPER COOL animation of Conics and other things mathematics, see Dr. Talman’s page. I actually e-mailed this guy with some of my Calc I animations, and he gave some good input.

In other news, has anyone else ever noticed that members of the Voltron Force wear the wrong color uniforms? Kieth wears red, but pilots the Black Lion; Sven wears black, but pilots the Blue Lion; Lance wears blue, but pilots the Red Lion. Hunk and Pidge wear the corresponding uniforms (orange-yellow and green, respectively.) I briefly took a stroll back to my early days and wrote down the permutation cycle which would restore the correct order, but realized that the Princess mucks it all up with her pink uniform later on in the first season.

Well, Taylor is anxious to plant the Chia Cat Grass her Uncle David and Aunt Tammy got her for Christmas. I plan to measure the growth and use it for a regression problem for my book. Yeah, math can take the fun out of anything! :-)

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:17:00.009-05:00

Here’s hoping all of you had a Merry Christmas! I took a few days off writing “the book” and spent some time learning some math. Did you know that “sufficiently nice” vector fields can be resolved into a sum of a divergence-free field and a curl-free field? I didn’t. It’s call the Helmholtz Decomposition Theorem (also called the Fundamental Theorem of Vector Calculus.) It’s a very pretty result and has given me a new appreciation of all that stuff I teach in Chapter 15... It also has inspired me to write a pretty nifty take home assignment which I’m sure will surprise and delight my next class of Calc 3 students...

In other news, I found a free, on-line Complex Variables book here. The guy who wrote it is an honest-to-goodness topologist, which is why, I think, it’s so easy for me to read. I became overly curious about the Cauchy-Riemann equations - especially what they actually “meant” - and, once again, Wikipedia offered some interesting perspectives on the topic.

One of the great things about math is that there’s always more to know... and there’s so much good stuff out there! I’m just grateful that I can make a living doing this kind of thing!

The problem with computers...

2008-12-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

It’s days like this I’m glad I don’t have a “real job.” Single digit overnight temperatures, dangerous wind chills, and who knows how many inches of snow... it was nice to observe all of this harsh weather from *inside* a warm house! A nice feature of a “Spring” sabbatical is that I won’t have to drive through any of Ohio’s “Spring” weather!

I spent the majority of my “book time” today trying to get LaTeX (pronounced lay-tek: that “X” is supposed to be the Greek letter “Chi”) to understand the concept of subdirectories (you’ll thank me later, Jeff!) The problem with computers is that they do exactly what you *tell* them to do - not necessarily what you *want* them to do. Getting LaTeX to do what you *want* it to do can be, well, time-consuming, frustrating, and tedious - but the end result is usually worth the effort; usually.

Let’s say you’re writing a book using LaTeX and you want to organize your files so that each chapter has its own subdirectory in which you store associated graphics files. When you go to compile the parent file in the main directory, LaTeX will not know where to look for all those graphics! It will either stop compiling and yell at you or just leave big, nondescript boxes labelled “#1”, “#2”, etc. Things were looking up when I discovered the \graphicspath{} command, but, alas, that only works for graphics specifically included using the \includegraphics{} command. Most of my graphics are generated using mfpic, and the \graphicspath{} command did nothing for these files. The solution? After some googling, I stumbled across this helpful page. I downloaded the import.sty and it fixed my problem! Now, I can keep all things Conics in my Conics folder and use the single command \import{./Conics/}{Conics} to let LaTeX know where all things Conics are located! There is one snag (of course!) You need to compile and METAPOST the chapter file in its own directory to make sure mfpic generates all the graphic files it needs before you import the chapter into the book. Such has always been my relationship with LaTeX.

In any case, I decided to give the distance and midpoint discussions their own section (and include an example that “requires” the graphing calculator) and found out a way to keep all the paragraphs from indenting; I never did like indenting paragraphs. The interested reader can find the newest revision here. You’ll also note that “comments” are now enabled on my blog, so post away!

Prelude to Sabbatical...

2008-12-21T00:14:00.000-05:00

I’ve been on “Winter Break” a week and am already tired of relaxing. I’ve been sleeping, on average, 12 hours a day (this includes naps), eating way too much unhealthy food, and, the worst of it, watching countless hours of mindless television thanks to my new AT&T U-verse DVR. When I started to seriously consider adopting a 5th cat in an attempt to form a real-life Voltron, well, I decided it was time to start in on that College Algebra book. It has been my dream for years to write a College Algebra textbook which I can offer “at cost” to students. As technology has progressed, my ambition is to now offer, in addition, an electronic version embellished with hyperlinks to TeacherTube tutorials like these. My dear friend and colleague, Dr. Z, has co-ordinated his leave with mine and so we will hunt this “white whale” together. I finished my first section on the 17th. I’m not altogether happy with it, but it serves, I think, as a decent first draft. The interested reader can read the .pdf here.