Mathematics for Business, Science, and Technology

This text is written for high school graduates preparing to take business or science courses at community colleges or universities, working professionals who feel they need a math review from the basics, and young students and working professionals who are enrolled in continued education institutions, and majoring in business related topics, such as business administration and accounting, and those pursuing a career in science, electronics, and computer technology. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the basics of algebra. Chapter 2 is a continuation of Chapter 1 and presents some practical examples with systems of two and three equations. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the fundamentals of geometry and trigonometry respectively. These treatments are not exhaustive; these chapters contain basic concepts that are used in science and technology. Chapter 5 is an abbreviated, yet a practical introduction to calculus. Chapters 6 and 7 serve as an introduction to the mathematics of finance and economics and the concepts are illustrated with numerous real-world applications and examples. Chapters 8 through 12 are devoted to probability and statistics. Many practical examples are given to illustrate the importance of this branch of mathematics. The topics that are discussed, are especially important in management decisions and in reliability. Appendix A contains a review of the basic arithmetic operations, introduces the SI system of units, and discusses different types of graphs. It is written for the reader who needs a review of the very basics of arithmetic. Appendix B is intended to teach the interested reader how to use MATLAB. Many practical examples are presented. The Student Edition of MATLAB is an inexpensive software package; it can be found in many college bookstores. Appendix C introduces the gamma and beta functions. These appear in the gamma and beta distributions and find many applications in business, science, and engineering. For instance, the Erlang distributions, which are a special case of the gamma distribution, form the basis of queuing theory. Appendix D is an introduction to Markov chains. A few practical examples illustrate their application in making management decisions. Appendices E, F, and G are introductions to the Lambda Index, Black-Scholes stock options pricing, and the Altman Z-score bankruptcy prediction respectively. Every chapter and appendix in this text is supplemented with Excel and / or MATLAB scripts to verify the computations and to construct relevant plots. The pages where the Excel and MATLAB scripts appear are listed in the Table of Contents.