This book is for someone who wants to build a solid, intuitive understanding of algebra in order to venture into fields like Calculus, Physics, Computer Science, and Engineering. If you are tired of just juggling math formulas without understanding the real meaning behind those operations, or why we ever need such operations in the real world, you will find this book to be a breadth of fresh air.

While studying math, undoubtedly you may have had so many unresolved questions. Why we get a positive number when we multiply two negative numbers? Why do we learn about function inverse, composition, and roots? Why do we need complex numbers and vectors when we have real numbers? What does a matrix really represent and why do we perform matrix multiplication in a weird way? Why do we need so many different functions like exponential, power, trigonometric, polynomial, logarithmic, etc. and are they somehow related? What’s the real-world significance of dot product, cross product and why isn’t simple multiplication sufficient? Why we use parametric equations sometimes but not always? Why we need an infinite series to begin with? If questions like these have been bothering you, you will find immense pleasure in intuitive explanations provided in this book.

That’s not all. If you are even remotely interested in computer programming, this book builds a step-by-step connection between algebra and programming, providing a fresh look at both fields. Similarly, this book will serve as an excellent companion to algebra textbooks, especially those on pre-Calculus, and will help you master algebraic models used in Physics and Engineering. It offers numerous real-world examples, plenty of illuminating pictures, and gratuitous explanations to show you the real meaning behind algebra.

Ruchira Sasanka is an engineer working in the field of High Performance Computing trying to eke out every bit of performance from large-scale scientific applications running on supercomputers. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, B.Sc. (Engineering) from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and holds many US patents. When not grappling with computers, he spends his time hiking, camping, and landscaping. He lives in Oregon, with his wife, son, and his imaginary dog.