Functions Modeling Change: A Preparation for Calculus, Preliminary Edition

The central theme of this book and course is functions as models of change. The authors emphasize that functions can be grouped into families and that functions can be used as models for real-world behavior. Because linear, exponential, power, and periodic functions are more frequently used to model physical phenomena, they are introduced before polynomial and rational functions. Once introduced, a family of functions is compared and contrasted with other families of functions.