Includes index.

pt. 1. A final farewell to numbers -- 1. Getting cozy with numbers -- Classifying number sets -- Persnickety sings -- Opposites and absolute values -- Come together with grouping symbols -- Important assumptions -- 2. Making friends with fractions -- What is a fraction? -- Ways to write fractions -- Simplifying fractions -- Locating the least common denominator -- Operations with fractions -- 3. Encountering expressions -- Introducing variables -- Translating words into math -- Behold the power of exponents -- Living large with scientific notation -- Dastardly distribution -- Get your operations in order -- Evaluating expressions -- pt. 2. Equations and inequalities -- 4. Solving basic equations -- Maintaining a balance -- Equations with multiple steps -- Absolute value equations -- Equations with multiple variables -- 5. Graphing linear equations -- Climbs aboard the coordinate plane -- Sketching line graphs -- It's a slippery slope -- Kinky absolute value graphs -- 6. Cooking up linear equations -- Point-slope form -- Slope-intercept form -- Graphing with slope-intercept form -- Standard form of a line -- Tricky linear equations -- 7. Linear inequalities -- Equations vs. inequalities -- Solving basic inequalities -- Compound inequalities -- Inequalities with absolute values -- Graphing linear inequalities -- pt. 3. Systems of equations and matrix algebra -- 8. Systems of linear equations and inequalities -- Solving a system by graphing -- The substitution method -- The elimination method -- Systems that are out of whack -- Systems of inequalities -- 9. The basic of the matrix -- What is the matrix? -- Matrix operations -- Multiplying matrices -- Determining determinants -- Cracking Cramer's rule -- pt. 4. Now you're playing with (exponential) power! -- 10. Introducing polynomials -- Classifying polynomials -- Adding and subtracting polynomials -- Multiplying polynomials -- Dividing polynomials -- 11. Factoring polynomials -- Greatest common factors -- Factoring by grouping -- Special factoring patterns -- Factoring trinomials using their coefficients -- Factoring with the bomb method -- 12. Wrestling with radicals -- Introducing the radical sign -- Simplifying radical expressions -- Unleashing rational powers -- Radical operations -- Solving radical equations -- When things get complex -- 13. Quadratic equations and inequalities -- Solving quadratics by factoring -- Completing the square -- The quadratic formula -- All signs point to the discriminant -- Solving one-variable quadratic inequalities -- 14. Solving high-powered equations -- There's no escaping your roots! -- Finding factors -- Baby steps to solving cubic equations -- Calculating rational roots -- What about imaginary and irrational roots? -- A final farewell to numbers -- Equations and inequalities -- Systems of equations and matrix algebra -- Now you're playing with (exponential) power! -- The function junction -- Please, be rational! -- Wrapping things up.