About the Author Marge Lial Marge Lial was always interested in math; it was her favorite subject in the first grade! Marge's intense desire to educate both her students and herself has inspired the writing of numerous best-selling textbooks. Marge， who received Bachelor's and Master's degrees from California State University at Sacramento， is now affiliated with American River College.Marge is an avid reader and traveler. Her travel experiences often find their way into her books as applications， exercise sets， and feature sets. She is particularly interested in archeology. Trips to various digs and ruin sites have produced some fascinating problems for her textbooks involving such topics as the building of Mayan pyramids and the acoustics of ancient ball courts in the Yucatan.John Hornsby When John Hornsby enrolled as an undergraduate at Louisiana State University， he was uncertain whether he wanted to study mathematics， education， or journalism. His ultimate decision was to become a teacher， but after twenty-five years of teaching at the high school and university levels and ten years of writing mathematics textbooks， both of his goals have been realized. His love for teaching and for mathematics is evident in his passion for working with students and fellow teachers as well. His specific professional interests are recreational mathematics， mathematics history， and incorporating graphing calculators into the curriculum.John's personal life is busy as he devotes time to his family (wife Gwen， and sons Chris， Jack， and Josh). He has been a rabid baseball fan all of his life. John's other hobbies include numismatics (the study of coins) and record collecting. He loves the music of the 1960s and has an extensive collection of the recorded works of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.Terry McGinnis - A native Midwesterner， Terry received her Bachelor's of Science in Elementary Education (Mathematics concentration) from Iowa State University. She has taught elementary and middle school mathematics， and developed and implemented the curriculum used with her students. Terry has been involved in college mathematics publishing for over 15 years， working with a variety of authors on textbooks in developmental and precalculus mathematics. After working behind the scenes on many of the Lial/Hornsby textbooks and supplements for the past ten years， Terry most recently joined Margaret Lial and John Hornsby as co-author of their developmental mathematics series that includes Introductory Algebra， Intermediate Algebra， and Introductory and Intermediate Algebra， all published by Addison-Wesley. When not working， Terry enjoys spinning at a local health club and walking. She is a devoted parent of two sons， Andrew and Tyler. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.