This is not really a review perse. I'm getting this book for a prereq in college. I'm just wondering if anyone knows the difference between the 3rd and 4th editions. Or is this another fantastic move of the publishing industry to save their lives/waste our money?

I ordered this textbook off of Amazon because it was cheaper than at my college bookstore. However, when I recieved it, I found that it was the Instructor's Edition. When I attempted to contact the seller, Lotus Books, to return it in exchange for the correct edition, my e-mail was ignored. I will never do business with Lotus Books ever again.

Using and Understanding Mathematics is the worse math book I have ever opened in my entire life. Chapters 5 and 6 are definitely the worse chapters in the book. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with statistical reasoning, having taken a statistic course prior to this course I found that there were a lot of mistakes in the book. The explanation of surveying and opinion polls was extremely poor. The calculation of the confidence interval was not clearly defined neither was the discussion on choosing bias for samples, nor finding the significant point value within a given sample. I also felt the book did a horrible job at explaining the significance of standard deviation and did a poor job of explaining the 68-95-99.7 rule. On a good note I felt chapter 4 was very informal especially about how to calculate credit card debt, mortgage, and determine loan payments with just simple equations.

I really like this book. I'm using it for an independent study class and it is ideal. I don't need to contact my instructor for clarification because it is well-written and has good examples.