» Trigonometry For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science))

Trigonometry For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science)) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Are you kidding??
Comment: 18 pages in, and I find an egregious error:

Page 18:
Example: Find the area of a circle if the angle between the two radii forming the sector is 80 degrees and the diameter of the circle is 4.5 inches.

1. Find the area of the circle.
The area of the whole circle is A=(pi)r² = (pi) · (4.5)² = 3.14 · 20.25 = 63.585, or about 63½ square inches.


Now, either this is poor math (by not converting the diameter into radius), or poor editing (by meaning radius as opposed to diameter). Whichever it is, it doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great, Practical Book with Good Topic Coverage
Comment: This is a great book to understand basic trig concepts and to help you do real things in real life with trigonometry. From building a tree house for your daughter to calculating the distance to the moon, this book offers great coverage of trig plus practical applications!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Trig
Comment: I am not sure if it was helpful to my husband, but he has moved on to Calculus.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book But Could Have Used a Proofreader Or Two
Comment: I was in a bit of a quandary as to how to rate this book. I bought the book and the companion "Trigonometry Workbook for Dummies" to refresh my trig skills, long rusted after nearly 50 years of little use. Both books are really quite good although the workbook could be more comprehensive. The big problem with the workbook, and to a lesser extent with the "Trigonometry for Dummies" book, is the large number of errors in the book. One works out a very complicated identity problem only to find that the stated problem is different from the problem answered due to typographical errors. I don't think I went seven pages in the workbook without finding an error. Most of the errors were changed minus or plus signs. This made maintaining confidence in the book very difficult.

One would think that a big publisher like Wiley would employ competent proofreaders. I would also expect them to have an errata sheet somewhere on their web page. But, nooo, nothing helpful there at all except a glossary they forgot to put in this book.

Overall, both books were very helpful, with the exception of not having a lot of confidence that the answer to the problem I was trying to solve would be correct.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good, but be careful
Comment: I took calculus years ago, but I found I'd forgotten about everything about math, even algebra. The book explains trigonometry fairly well, but I found several errors. One problem contained a minus sign, but was worked out with a plus sign in the answers. Another problem had a similar mistake. Still, about every math book has mistakes, and this one does explain things well. Sometimes you have to really think to see how the author got the answer since a few steps were skipped, but that's probably a good mental exercise. I've had fun working through it and have been obsessed with finishing it at times, so I guess it's accomplishing its purpose.

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