Life of Fred Mathematics

As a former math teacher I absolutely love how the writer of this series is able to take real life story problems and incorporate them into a funny story line.  As the author “talks” directly to the student through the book he explains the “why” of math and how it works.  Additionally, other subjects are cross referenced throughout the series ingeniously integrating all disciplines.

The series is designed to be used independently by the student, starting with the Fractions book and moving forward.  The Elementary Series is to be read aloud to and worked together with the student.  There are clear and concise explanations of how to work the problems in the answer key and throughout the books.

“Fred” reminds me of my high school math teacher as he uses humor to teach mathematics.  Both the Ray’s Arithmetics and Life of Fred can be used as a stand alone math curriculum.  However, I do choose to use both in my schooling.

So, how does Life of Fred compare to other products?  Well, here is what the author had to say…

“I taught for years at the high school and the college level.  Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra, for example, has more math in it than is normally taught at the college level.

Compare Life of Fred: Geometry with Jacob’s Geometry.  He has about a dozen ruler-and-compass constructions.  Fred has 46.

Compare Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra with Saxon’s Algebra 2.  Saxon leaves out (and Fred includes) (1) permutations; (2) matrices; (3) linear programming; (4) series; (5) sigma notation; (6) sequences; (7) combinations ; (8) Pascal’s triangle; (9) math induction; (10) partial fractions, which are needed in calculus; (11) graphing in three dimensions; and (12) change-of-base rule for logarithms.  ”

The Elementary Books Before Fractions to be started anytime between the first and fourth grades depending on the readiness of the reader

Life of Fred: Apples    Sample
Numbers that Add to 7, Circles, Ellipses, Reading 6:00 on a Clock, 5 + ? = 7, Days of the Week, Leap Years, Spelling February, Dressing for Cold Weather, 15 Degrees Below Zero (–15º), Deciduous Trees, Deciduous Teeth, Counting by Fives, 3x + 4x = 7x, Archimedes 287 B.C. Wrote The Sand Reckoner and Got Killed Being Rude, ante meridiem (a.m.), Donner and Blitz in German, One Million, Euclid Wrote The Elements, Squares, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Whales Are Not Fish, The “There Are Zero . . .” Game, Sets, the Popularity of Zero, Why Boats Are Cheaper to Rent in the Winter, Triangles, Herbivores and Carnivores, the Colors of the Rainbow, a King in Checkmate, the Story of the Titanic, ≠ (not equal), x + 4 = 7, One Thousand, Counting by Hundreds, Reading 3:05 on a Clock, Rectangles.
ISBN: 978-0-9791072-4-5, hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Butterflies Sample
One Yard = 3 Feet, Numbers that Add to 9, Counting by twos, Reading 5:10 on a Clock, Facts about Butterflies, Chrysalis vs. Cocoon, Braces, Parentheses and Brackets, Christina Rossetti, Sheet Music for “But Not Alone,” Domenico Fetti’s Archimedes Thoughtful, Exclamation Points, Bad Things about Sugar, One Good Thing about Sugar, Marvin Stone’s Invention of the Paper Straw 1888, Orion’s Belt, Betelgeuse, Why Not Every Three Stars Can Make a Triangle, Collinear, Reading 5:55 on a Clock, Book Signings, Why You Can Not Walk In a Room, Deliberate vs. Inadvertent, How to Say Toenail in German, Ordinal Numbers, Yurts, Half Past Six, a Nebula is Not a Star, Light Years, the Alphabet Game, a Dozen, Perpendicular, p.m. (post meridiem), Syncope, Sheet Music for “The Crash of the Bell Tower,” Quotation Marks inside of Quotation Marks, A Baker’s Dozen, Spine of a Book, Naissance, Lie vs. Lay, Whole Numbers, Cardinal Numbers, Trillion, Quadrillion and Quintillion, Aleph-null, Kingie’s Brothers, States that Begin with the Letter M, ∞, Saying Thank You, Virgil’s Aeneid, History of Pizza, How to Set a Table.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Cats Sample
Ursa Major (Big Bear), Commutative, Asterism, Vowels, Cardinality of a Set, Loud Talkers, Hiring Freeze, One Quarter, Numerals vs. Numbers, Counting by Threes, Hoodwinked, Finding Patterns, Sheet Music for “Happy”, Four Basic Emotions, Right Angles, Quarter and Half Notes, Obligate Carnivores, Adjectives and Verbs, Carbohydrates, a Quarter to Three, the Mariana Trench, 5280 Feet in a Mile, Ferdinand Magellan’s Trip, What Pacific Means, Bacteria, Rabies in 300 B.C., Treating Cat Scratches, Capital Letters Start Sentences, Five Vowel Words: Mat, Met, Mit, Mot, Mut, Twenty-Two English Words That Don’t Contain a Vowel: By, Cry, . . . , Tryst, and Why, Numbers Expressed as Hundreds, Tens and Ones, Sexagesimal and Decimal Systems, Numbers that Add to 13, Morse Code, Four Major Oceans of the World, Centuries, Centenarians, and Centurions, Homonyms, Square Feet, Prepositional Phrases, 71 English Prepositions, Volume, One Meter, the Three Countries of the World that Don’t Primarily Use the Metric System. What Mathematicians Do, Prime Numbers, Less Than (<).
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Dogs Sample
One Million, Our Place in the Dance of Life, π, the Game of Doubles, Fortnight, Digits in a Number, Two Dimes = 20 Cents, New Words in English, Anachronism, Middle English, Old English, Doubling 1 ➔ 2 ➔ 4 ➔ up to 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376 (which is 100 doubles), 7 – z = 4, Making Choices in Life, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Morse Code from A–Z, Functions, the Function Party Game, One Billion, Finding Patterns, What Can Cause Unclear Thinking, Rhyme Schemes, Tennyson’s In Memoriam, Eyes Adjusting to Bright Light, Consecutive Even Numbers, ATM Cards, Numbers that Add to 15, Guessing Functions, Right Angles, Rectangles, Constant Functions, Buying Books, One Day Without Reading, Sheet Music for “Borrowed Books”, Beautiful Handwriting, Numbers that Add to 17, Macronutrients, the Eight Planets, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Different Ways to Pick Out a Book to Read, Bar Graphs, Different Jobs You Might Choose, Adopting a Dog, Idioms, Spendthrifts, Adding two- and three-digit numbers, Art in Advertising, Carrying the One in Addition, Female and Male, Apartment Leases, Isotopes of Hydrogen, the Chemical Elements, Dog Games.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Edgewood Sample
Dangling participles, Concurrent Lines, Christina Rossetti’s “A Chill,” Dealing with Troubles, Parallel Lines, Trapezoids, Right Angles, Facing Things You Don’t Want to Do, Functions, Rhombuses, Constant Functions, Tripoli, Eritrea, Median Average, Writing Larger Numbers with Commas, Using Logarithms to Solve 2x = 5, Birdie Rule for Logarithms, Finding Approximate values for log 5 on a Calculator, Bar Graphs, Math Poems, >, Couplets in Poetry, Strait does not mean Straight, Judging People by their Size, If Fred Were an Author, Numbers that Add to 8, 10, and 12, Population of the Earth, State Income Tax Rates as Percents, Definition of Polka Dots, Parallelograms, Rows and Columns of a Matrix, the Four Kinds of Sentences: Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamation, Pronouns, Quarter of an Hour, Importance of Seat Belts, Small, Medium, and Large Mistakes, Busted vs. Broken, Half Dozen, Gibbous Moons, Dusk, Two Kinds of Knowledge Errors, Firearm Safety, Symptoms of Hypothermia, Voluntary and Involuntary Actions of the Body, Lorentz Contraction, International Date Line, Treatment of Hypothermia, the Addition Game Using Playing Cards, Alright Is Not a Word, Playing Guess-A-Function, Six Examples of Functions: Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Tangent, and Derivative, One Way to Feel Lonely, What It Means to Matriculate.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Farming  Sample
Why Many Dolls Have a Vacant Stare, Adding to 14, Litotes, Googol, Three Things in Order to be Great, Oxymorons, Percents, Adding to 16, Rows of a Matrix, Median Average, Collective Nouns, Union of Sets, All of Mathematics Generated by the Empty Set, Proof that the Set of Everything (the Universal Set) Cannot Exist, Cardinality of a Set, Cock-a-doodle-doo in Four Languages, Collinear Points, Numbers vs. Numerals, Borrowing One in Subtraction, Circumference of the World, What Iniquitous Means, the Second Sound Recording Ever Made, the Proof that Every Number is Interesting, Definition of Function, Domain, and Codomain, Flour Fights Are Fun, Rhetorical Questions, the Game of Questions, Caesura, Radius and Ulna, Humerus vs. Humorous, Dollars in Different Denominations.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Goldfish Sample
Tulip Mania, Drawing Things to Scale, Digits in a Number, Similes, Being Pardoned Before Being Tried in 1974, What Is Rarely on a Doll’s Christmas List, the Whole Point of Math, Don’t Wave Your Money Around, the Advanced Form of the Game of Which of These Is Not Like the Others, Keeping Your Word, Picking Your Friends and Your Spouse, Polygons, Sequences, a Crocodile Smile, What to Remember If You Smoke, Comparative Forms of Adjectives, Superlative Forms of Adjectives, a Waning Moon, People’s Life Goals Are Different than Fish’s Life Goals, Definition of an Acre, What Gets Venerated, Meters vs. Yards, Four Countries That Are Nations of Immigrants, Kilograms vs. Pounds, How to Deal with a Duck Who Never Tells the Truth, Lacrimal Glands, Area of a Rectangle, Living in a City vs. Living in the Country, Volume of a Fish Tank, Cubic Feet into Gallons, Gallons of Water into Pounds, Multiplying by Ten, Hundred, and Thousand, One Ton = 2000 lbs., Anthropomorphizing Fish, Plastic Aquarium Plants Don’t Die, Decimal Point, Estimating Sums, Drawbacks to 180-gallon Fish Tanks, Physical Work vs. Mental Work, Tragedy of the Commons, a Fish in a Tank vs. Coalback in Jail, Talking to Your Goldfish, Kingie’s Favorite Composers, Practicing the Metric System with Dental Floss, Purchasing Foreign Products, Bar Graphs, Protein and Calcium for Growth.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Honey  Sample
A Real Education Is Both Broad and Deep, Thirty-six Shades of Blue, Commutative Law of Multiplication, Closed Under Addition, Having a Job that Matters, Quarter of an Hour, Cardinal Numbers, Developing Character, Time Zones in the U.S., d = rt, the Milky Way, One Trillion, Exponents, Protons in the Observable Universe, Atoms, Periodic Table of the Elements, Varieties of Houses, 1½ + 1½, Is This a Function?, Bragging, Mysteries in Life, Long Division, Fractions, Remainders, Dividing 56382 by 3, Hip Fractures, Changing 82614 feet into Yards, Three Reasons to Learn Long Division (Even Though Calculators Exist), 36 Quarters Equals How Many Dollars?, the Four Times Table, a Disadvantage to Being Married to a Calculator, Why English Teachers Have It Rougher Than Math Teachers, What Happens When You Squeeze Your Toothpaste Tube Four Times Harder Than Normal, Reading Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter in German, the Guess-a-Function Game, a Balance in Life, Four Answers to Where Honey Comes From, Four Answers to Where Do Bees Live, Hexagons and Octagons, Why Bees Don’t Make Honeycombs in the Shape of Squares, Smelting Iron Ore, What You Add to Iron to Make Steel, Buying Flash Cards vs. Making Them, How Far the Netherlands Is from Holland, Becoming an Apiarist, Farther vs. Further, Checklist for Starting a Business, Penciling out a Proposed Business, the Big Question in Arithmetic—Do I Add, Subtract, Multiply, or Divide?, Why Not to Become a Typewriter Manufacturer, the Drawbacks to Ignoring Reality, Why Fred Can’t Get a Credit Card, Looking Back at Mistakes We Have Made in Life, Division by Two-digit Numbers, the Past Tense of mimic, 7xyz + 8xyz, What Magic Really Means, Slope of a Line.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Ice Cream Sample
One Use of Poetry, The Big Question in Arithmetic, Stationery vs. Stationary, Multiplying Two-digit Numbers, a Pound of Hamburger Weighs More Than a Pound of Gold, the Last Ten Multiplication Facts, How to Remember 7×8 = 56, Sigma Notation, Bibelots, Subtracting 12 oz. from 15 lbs., Forestland in the United States, Hyperbole, Bar Graphs, Ordered Pairs, Business Letters vs. Personal Letters, Capitalization in Closing Salutations, Elapsed Time, First and Second Coordinates, Using Honey Cards, Why Algebra Does Not Use the Times Sign (×), How to Polish Leather Shoes, Maps as Seen by Artists, War Historians, Mathematicians, Lovers of Cheese, and Literature Historians, a Poetical Meaning for “the Land of Milk and Honey,” Endoplasmic Reticulum, Finding Cyprus on a Map, the Cardinality of the Set of All Ice Cream Flavors that Begin with the Letter Alpha, Implicit vs. Explicit, the Two Major Countries on the Iberian Peninsula, Why You Can’t Find an Ibex in Kansas, Minutes and Hours in the Metric System, How to Have Ice in the Summer in Kansas in 1843, Improper Use of Seat Belts, Plotting Points on a Graph, Why You Shouldn’t Park on the Sidewalk, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni’s Painting, Perimeter, the One Reason for Mathematics, When Eating Ice Cream Can Be Torture, Irony, Hooke’s Law, Slope of a Line, Estimating Using Graphs, Changing the Scale on a Graph, Counting Back Change, Liberty vs. Freedom, the Commutativity of Set Union, Less Than (<) and Greater Than (>), Homogenized Milk, Why Use Soap, Cryogenics, What You Can Do If You Have Tons of Casual Cash (the answer: buy graph paper), Joe’s Stomach Has Only Finite Capacity, Why Brass Braces Are Better Than Regular Braces, Area of a Rectangle.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Jelly Beans Sample
Little Babies Can’t Fritter Away Their Time, Finding One-third of a Number, Using Fisher’s Exact test, When the Possessive Case Is Indicated with Just an Apostrophe and No s, Prime Numbers, Fibonacci Numbers, Nouns, Fred’s Seven-word Speech, the Use of Segues, Can Dolls Grow Up?, Casting Out Nines, Seven to the One-thousandth Power in Three Steps, What Cows Don’t Think About, a Great Way to Rot Your Teeth, Intersection of Sets, Commutativity of Intersection, the Probability that Fred Will See Betelgeuse Become a Super Nova (the answer: one chance in ten thousand), Why Education Is So Important, Fever vs. Femur, Carburetors, Litotes, One Way to Avoid Evil, Decimal Points, Adding Decimals, Logs, Volume of a Box, Outline of the Plot of the First Three Acts of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, English Major vs. Math Major, Résumés, the Pinocchio Paradox, What Is a Tinker, Median Averages, Mean Averages, the Fad that Began March 3, 1939, Fifty Basic Survival Skills, Exponents, Set Subtraction, Reducing Fractions, Milli- and Kilo-, Monophagous and Monostich, Epigraphs, Tally Marks, Pie Charts, Five Things Your Income Depends On, the Biggest Happiness Killer, Mode Average, Subtracting Three Inches from Three Miles, Incisors, How to Prove You Are Not a Duck.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Intermediate Series

Life of Fred: Kidneys  Sample
Three Keys to Success, Charles Demuth’s “I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold,” Milliliters, Teachers’ Salaries, How to Carry Money on the Street, Writing Numerals in Checks ($4000 and Not $40.00), Idioms, Semibreves, Libraries State that Mccoy Comes Before Macdonald, Word Problems in Arithmetic, 100%, the Result of Years of Piano Practice, the Great Depression, Na + Cl → NaCl, Grams Vs. Ounces, Functions, Images of Elements of the Domain, Volumes, 115 Ounces = 7 Pounds and 3 Ounces, the Biggest Error in Thinking, What to Do in Life When You Hit a Wall, Perimeters, Definition of an Acre, How to Make a Million Dollars in Four Years, the Calculus Definition of Limit, the Economics of Free Things, Scores, Dozens, and Braces, Polar Form of Complex Numbers, Exponents, the Five Different Solutions to X5 = 32, Salaries of University Presidents, a Quarter after Two, Toiletries for Kids and Older People, Physical Exams, Ketones and Glucose, the Best Use of Leisure Time, Why We Have Two Kidneys, the Chief Use of Kidneys Is Not to Make Urine, Point-Segment-Square-Cube-Tesseract, Twelve Kinds of Set Theory, the Best Time in History to Become a Mathematician, Adumbration in Literature, Arithmetic Sequences and Series, the Difference Between the United Kingdom and Great Britain, the Four Different Reasons We Speak, Preview of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Sigma Notation, Descartes’ Analytic Geometry, Why it Is Called a Solstice.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Liver Sample
What to Pack for Camp, 1/4 + 1/4 +1/4 = 3/4, Why Blowing Your Nose and Wiping Your Eyes Is Not Commutative, I.e., E.g., Viz., Elapsed Time, the Two Rules of Survival, Passing the Sat Exam, Metaphors, the Three Angles of a Triangle Always Add to 180º, What Can Go Wrong with a Lifetime Guarantee, How To Be a Business Success, the Pythagorean Theorem, Finding Two-fifths of $400,000, Ordering Tjvjik, Ghapama and Satsivi at a Restaurant, Being a Hepatologist, Solving 2x – 7 = 11, What Livers Do, the Difference Between Saturnalia and Saturnine, Hypercholesterolemia, Pie Charts, Cirrhosis, the Drawbacks of Multitasking, Extradural Hemorrhage, Six-sevenths of 413, Four Drawbacks to Fred Living in a Castle in Germany, Verbs Often Used by People in Various Occupations, Treble and Bass Clefs, Electrical Use by U.S. Farms in 1925, How to Win at Bridge, Short Division, Quotients, Secant Lines, How to Have People like You, Changing Percents to Fractions—68 Completely Worked out Examples, Computing 2% of 550, Who Is Not Harmed by Watching Television All Day Long, the Difference Between Graffito and Graffiti, Pet Names Are Different than Names for Pets, How Not to Work Out in a Gym Weight Room, Functions, Domains, and Codomains, Brain Chatter and the Uses of Silence, Reducing Fractions, the First Step in Producing Great Art, What Three Units of a College Class Means, Reasonable Answers, the One Purpose of Great Universities, the Masthead of a Newspaper, Forming the Possessive of Words That End in S, Four Things That Are Important to Learn Earlier in Life, Finding an Average.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Life of Fred: Mineshaft Sample
Milligrams and Pounds, Rounding Numbers; a Trillion Pounds of Rice to Cuba; the Number of Stars in a Typical Galaxy; Three-eights of 19,416; Is a Quart less than (<) a Duck?; What to Do with Eleven Hours of Free Time Each Day; Six Is What Fraction of 24? Post Meridiem; Exponents; Extending the Domain of a Function; What Piece of Leather Made Feudalism Possible; Perpendicular Lines; Diminutives; Silent Letters; Rhombus; Can a Four-sided Figure Have Exactly Three Right Angles? Cardinality of Sets; Sectors; Most Horses Achieve Few Outstanding Things in Life; the Reason to Learn the Greek Alphabet; Square Knots; Inverse Operations; How Concrete Is Different than Cement; Prolix vs. Laconic; Freedom vs. Liberty; the Largest Cardinal Number Isn’t Six; Ounces, Gills, and Pints; Italicizing Book Titles; 30% of 270; Division by 100; Broiling vs. Pan Frying; Freud, Skinner, and Maslow; the Four Types of Sentences; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; Pangolins; Mammals; Subtracting 3 oz. From 4 lbs. 2 oz.; Subtracting 7 Minutes 25 Seconds from 20 Minutes 10 Seconds; Subtracting 2 Gallons 1 Quart from 4 Gallons; Chords of a Circle; Three Definitions of Diameter; Steak for One-year-olds; Subtracting 40 Feet from 9 Miles; Fahrenheit to Celsius Conversions; Questions People Have at Different Stages in Life; Why You Won’t Bump into Moby Dick in Kansas; Does x < y Imply y > x? Converting 39 Inches into Feet; Indications Your Daughter Will Become an English Major; Finding the Sale Price after Taking 40% Off; the Image of an Element in the Domain of a Function; 63ºF = 17 2/9ºC.
Hardback, 128 pages. $16

Arithmetic Books

Life of Fred: Fractions      Please don’t begin this before the 5th grade.  Sample
Less Than, Billion, Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers, Diameter and Radius, Savings and Expenses, Definition of a Fraction, Sectors, Comparing Fractions, Reducing Fractions, Adding and Subtracting Fractions, Common Denominators, Roman Numerals, Least Common Multiples, Improper Fractions, Lines of Symmetry, Division by Zero, Circumference, Multiplying Mixed Numbers, Commutative Law, Canceling, Definition of a Function, Area, Unit Analysis, Division of Fractions, Geometric Figures, Estimating Answers.
Hardback, 192 pages. $19

Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents  Sample
Number Systems, Adding and Subtracting Decimals, Multiplying by Ten, Functions and Inverse Functions, Pi, Multiplying Decimals, Whole Numbers, Squaring a Number, Subtracting Mixed Units, Sets and Subsets, Union and Intersection of Sets, Rules of Divisibility, Division of Decimals, Repeating Decimals, Bar Graphs, Prime and Composite Numbers, Consecutive Numbers, the Goldbach Conjecture, Area of a Circle, Dollars vs. Cents, Pie Charts, Conversion between Percents/ Fractions/ Decimals, 40% of 15, 30% off, Distance Equals Rate Times Time, 15% more, Area of a Triangle, Square Roots, Area of a Parallelogram, 13 Is What Percent of 52, Ratio, Ordered Pairs, Graphing, Negative Numbers, Elapsed Time, Probability.
Hardback, 192 pages. $19

Getting Ready for High School Math often done during the middle school years

Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 0 with Physics   Sample
Numerals, Making models, Nineteen conversion factor problems, Area of a rectangle, Friction independent of speed, Constants of Proportionality, Exact speed of light, Continuous and discrete variables, Story of the meter, Pendulums, Oblate spheroids, Krypton vs. kryptonite, Square roots, Pilgrims in Massachusetts in 1620, Hard c and soft c, Normal forces, Coefficient of friction, Solving d = rt for r, How ducks pronounce mu, Graphing points, Ordered pairs, Why rocks stop falling, Hunch-conjecture-theory-law, Simultaneity doesn’t exist, Inductive and deductive reasoning, How fossils and astronomy are connected, Hooke’s law, Four ways to stretch a spring, Three meanings of plastic, Static vs. kinetic friction, Nine forms of energy, Energy Cards game, Calamari spaghetti, Poetry of Christina Rossetti, Most filmed spot in the world, Getting grass stains out of pants, Experimentally finding the coefficient of static friction without knowing the weight of the object, How you know you have a liver, Resolving a vector into its components, Addition of vectors, Similar triangles, Slope, Physicists think that there isn’t any work in holding a bowling ball, Kelvin temperature, Law of conservation of energy, Perpetual motion machines, Kilowatt-hours, Photosynthesis, Metric system, Gregorian calendar, Two ways to measure mass, Definition of pi, Inertia, Newton’s first and second laws, Why cramming doesn’t work well, Definition of pressure, Exponents, Density of neutron stars, Computing the mass of an iron atom, Cavalieri’s principle, Pressure at a given depth, Special glass in auto windshields, Buoyancy, Finding the volume of a desk lamp, 80-pound rubber ducky, Official rules of golf, Advantages of cerebrospinal fluid, Air has mass, Why 35-foot straws don’t work, You are alive because ice floats, Gedankenexperiments, How water fountains work, Elliptical constructions, Galvani and dead frogs that twitch, Birds sitting on high-voltage power lines, How to buy a cafe, Placing question marks at the end of a quotation, Schematic drawings in electrical circuits, Electrons per second in an ampere, Why we wear clothes on days ending in y, Ohm’s law, Batteries in series, Computing resistance in parallel circuits, Dangers of electricity—Thomas Merton, Museums in New York City, History of the atom: Democritus, Isaac Newton, Henri Becquerel, J. J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Principal quantum number, Arnold Sommerfeld, Louis de Broglie, C. J. Divisson and L. H. Germer, Orbital quantum number, Orbital magnetic quantum number, Spin magnetic quantum number, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, Carl David Anderson, Positron.
Hardback, 288 pages, $29

Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 1 with Biology  Do Pre-Alg 1 before Pre-Alg 2  Sample
Definition of Life, Sets, Fractions, Germination of Seeds, Area of a Rectangle, Volume of a Cube, Ordinal Numbers, Diameter and Circumference of a Circle, Definition of π, 2% of 500, Four Ways Plants Make New Plants, d = rt, 20% Discount, the Five Kingdoms, Phyla, Classes, Orders, Families, Genera, Species, Your Brain, Conversion Factors, Where the Non-Water Mass of a Plant Comes From—Plants Don’t Eat Dirt, Subsets of Sets, Digestion, Eyes, Negative Numbers, Dominant Genes, Genotypes, Phenotypes, Blood, Staying Alive, Solving Algebraic Equations, Volume of a Cylinder, Word Problems, Breathing, Chlorophyll vs. Hemoglobin vs. Hemocyanin, Avogadro’s Number, Stoichiometry, the Whole Numbers, a Proof that Division by Zero is Not Permitted, Bones, the Integumentary System, Epidermis and Dermis, Meiosis and Mitosis, Chromosomes, DNA, Alleles, Changing Your Phenotype.
Hardback, 288 pages. $29

Life of Fred: Pre-Algebra 2 with Economics  Sample
Domain and codomain of a function, Conversion factors, Steps in Solving Word Problems, How Not to Bore Your Horse If You Are a Jockey, One-to-one Functions, Unit Analysis, Key to a Successful Business, Five Qualities that Money Should Have, the Tulip Mania in Holland, Definitions of Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism, Payday Loans, the Tragedy of the Commons, Partnerships, Cardinality of a Set, Four Ways to Kill Competition, Freedom vs. Liberty, Why We Have a High Standard of Living, Tariffs, Demand Curves, Venn Diagrams, Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage.
Hardback, 288 pages. $29

High School Mathematics (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)

Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra Expanded Edition  Sample
(This book replaces both Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra and Fred’s Home Companion: Beginning Algebra.  This book has all the problems completely worked out, which wasn’t true in the old books.  And it costs less.)
All of first-year high school algebra: Finite/Infinite Numbers, Natural numbers, Whole numbers, Integers, Adding signed numbers, Ratios, Multiplying signed numbers, Proportions, Inequalities in the integers, Continued Ratios, Adding like terms, Rectangles, Trapezoids, Sectors, Symmetric Law of Equality, Order of operations, Solving Equations, Rational numbers, Set builder notation, Distance-rate-time problems, Distributive law, Reflexive Law of Equality, Proof of the distributive law, Coin problems, Age problems, Transposing, Solving systems of equations by elimination, Work problems in two unknowns, Graphs, Plotting points, Averages, Graphing linear equations, Graphing any equation, Solving systems of equations by graphing, Solving systems of equations by substitution, Inconsistent and Dependent systems of equations, Factorial function, Areas and volumes, Commutative laws, Negative exponents, Multiplying polynomials, Solving quadratic equations by factoring, Common factors factoring, Easy trinomial factoring, Difference of squares factoring, Grouping factoring, Harder trinomial factoring, Solving fractional equations, Simplifying rational expressions, Adding and subtracting rational expressions, Multiplying and dividing rational expressions, Solving pure quadratic equations, Square roots, Pythagorean theorem, Real numbers, Irrational numbers, Fractional exponents, Solving radical equations, Rationalizing the denominator, Quadratic equations in everyday life, Solving quadratic equations by completing the square, Quadratic formula, Long division of polynomials, Functions, Slope, Finding slope of a line from its equation, Slope-intercept form of a line, Range of a function, Fast way to graph y = mx + b, Fahrenheit-Celsius conversions, Graphing inequalities, Why you can’t divide by zero, Absolute value, Solving inequalities in one unknown.
ISBN: 978-0-937032-11-1, hardback, 544 pages. $39

Zillions of Practice Problems for Beginning Algebra Sample
(Optional)  Need a lot of practice or stuck on a particular kind of problem? This book has been requested by many readers. Keyed directly to the chapters and topics of Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra. Each problem worked out in complete detail. Eleven mixture word problems are each worked out step by step, often using a whole page of explanation for each problem. Thirteen quadratic equations solved by completing the square. Thirteen examples of two equations with two unknowns solved by the elimination method. This book is mandatory for those who need it. The Zillions of Practice Problems Slogan: If your cat can work through all the problems in this book, your cat can teach Beginning Algebra at any school in the nation.
Hardback, 272 pages. $29

Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra Expanded Edition  Sample
(This book replaces both Life of Fred: Advanced Algebra and Fred’s Home Companion: Advanced Algebra.  This book has all the problems completely worked out, which wasn’t true in the old books.  And it costs less.)
All of second-year high school algebra: Ratios, Median averages, Proportions, Dividing by zero, Cross-multiplying, Constants of proportionality, Inverse variation, Direct variation, Joint variation, Weight varies directly as the cube of the height, Area varies directly as the square of the height, Volume varies directly as the cube of the height, Laws of exponents, Rationalizing the denominator, Pythagorean theorem, Solving radical equations, Surface area of a cone, A Brief History of mathematics, Natural numbers, Whole numbers, Integers, Irrational numbers, Real numbers, Imaginary numbers, Complex numbers, Velocity, Conversion factors, Unit analysis, Venn diagrams, Union of sets, Disjoint sets, Subsets, Intersection of sets, Significant digits in addition and multiplication, Scientific notation, Exponential equations, Logarithms, Product, quotient, birdie, and power rules for logarithms, Using a scientific calculator, Finding antilogs, Three definitions of logarithms, Change-of-base rule for logarithms, Graphing, Abscissa, Ordinate, Quadrants, Slope, Slope given two points, Slope-intercept and double-slope forms of the line, Slopes of perpendicular lines, Multiplying binomials, Factoring binomials, Factoring a difference of squares, Factoring trinomials, Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing polynomial fractions, Complex fractions, Linear equations, Quadratic equations, Radical equations, Systems of Equations, Inconsistent, dependent and independent equations, Graphing planes in three dimensions, Cramer’s rule, Determinants, Ellipses, Circles, Reflective property of ellipses, Parabolas, Hyperbolas, Graphing inequalities, Definition of a function, Domain, Codomain, Range, Functional notation, One-to-one, Onto, Inverse functions, Ordered pairs, Long division of polynomials, Partial fractions, Proofs by math induction, Linear Programming, Arithmetic progressions, and series, Adding and multiplying matrices, Geometric sequences and progressions, Sigma notation, Fundamental principle of counting, Factorial, Permutations, Combinations, Binomial formula, Pascal’s Triangle.
ISBN: 978-1-937032-13-5, hardback, 544 pages. $39

Life of Fred: Geometry Sample
Thirteen regular chapters and six bonus honors chapters. Points and lines, Definition of when one point is between two other points, Definition of a triangle, Midpoint, Proof of a theorem in paragraph form, Tangent and secant lines, Area and volume formulas, Undefined terms, Hypothesis and conclusion, Contrapositives, Postulates, Euclid’s The Elements, Rays, Acute, obtuse, and right angles, Congruent angles, Linear pairs, Vertical angles, Supplementary angles, Perpendicular lines, SSS, SAS, ASA, Isosceles triangle theorem, Pons Asinorum, Parallel lines, Skew lines, Indirect proofs, Attempts to prove the parallel postulate, Exterior angles, Two proofs of the exterior angle theorem, Hypotenuse-leg theorem, Medians, Quadrilaterals: parallelogram, rhombus, trapezoid, kite, rectangle, square, Honor’s Problem of the century: If two angle bisectors are congruent when drawn to the opposite sides, then the triangle is isosceles, Definition of a polygon, Proofs of all the area formulas given only the area of a square (This is hard. Most books start with the area of a triangle as given.) Proofs of the Pythagorean theorem, Geometries with only three points, Similar triangles, Five manipulations of proportions, Angle bisector theorem, Symbolic logic, Truth tables, Circles, Inscribed angle theorem, Definition of a limit of a function, Inductive and deductive reasoning, Golden rectangles, 46 Ruler-and-compass constructions, Non-euclidean geometries, Solid geometry, Euler’s theorem, Geometry in high dimensions, Stereochemistry and homochirality, Complete chart up to the 14th dimension, Proofs using analytic geometry, Proof that a right angle is congruent to an obtuse angle using euclidean geometry, Flawless (modern) geoemtry which was invented about a hundred years ago.
ISBN: 978-0-9709995-4-2, hardback, 542 pages. $39         Answer key, paper, $6

Life of Fred: Trigonometry Expanded Edition  Sample
(This book replaces both Life of Fred: Trigonometry and Fred’s Home Companion: Trigonometry..  This book has all the problems completely worked out, which wasn’t true in the old books.  And it costs less.)
After Beginning Algebra, Advanced Algebra and Geometry, this book completes everything you need for calculus. Angles of elevation, Definition of the sine function, Angles of depression, Area of a triangle = ½ab sin θ, Heron’s formula, Review of graphing and significant digits, Discrete and continuous variables as illustrated in The Merchant of Venice, Tangent function, Why we create new mathematics, Limit of tan θ as θ approaches 90º, Ordinal and cardinal numbers, Cosine function, Graphing y = sin x, Identity function, Contrapositives, Domain and range of a function, Defining 6 to the pi power, Trig angles in standard position, Expanding the domain of a function, Periodic functions, Identities from algebra, Even and odd functions, Trig identities for sine and cosine, for tangent, for secant, Four suggestions for increasing success in solving trig identities, Trig identities for cotangent and cosecant, Nine tricks for solving trig identities, Shortcuts for graphing y = a sin (bx + c), Degrees, minutes, and seconds, Conversion factors, Radians, Videlicet, exempli. gratia, and id est, Area of a segment of a circle, Solving conditional trig equations, Related angles, Joseph Lister, Multiple angle formulas and their proofs, Symmetric law of equality, Probability of finding a right triangle, Law of Cosines, Florence Nightingale, Law of Sines, Inverse functions, One-to-one functions, Hyperbole, Principal values of the inverse trig functions, Ambiguous case for the law of sines, Why sin (2 Arctan 3) equals 3/5, Polar coordinates, Graphing a cardioid and a lemniscate, Codomain of a function, Official definition of the number one, Proof that the square root of 2 is irrational, Transcendental numbers, Complex numbers, Russell’s paradox, Malfatti’s problem and its solution in 1967, r cis θ, de Moivre’s theorem and its proof, The millionth roots of i, Review of the major parts of high school algebra and a preview of all of Calculus.
ISBN: 978-1-937032-16-6, hardback, 496 pages. $39

University Mathematics

Life of Fred: Calculus     Freshman and Sophomore Calculus  Sample
Functions, Limits, Speed, Slope, Derivatives, Concavity, Trig, Related Rates, Curvature, Integrals, Area, Work, Centroids, Logs, Conics, Infinite Series, Solids of Revolution, Polar Coordinates, Hyperbolic Trig, Vectors, Partial Derivatives, Double Integrals, Vector Calculus, Differential Equations. (Two years of college calculus.)
Hardback, 544 pages. $39 Answer key, paper, $6

Life of Fred: Statistics    a year of college statistics Sample
Descriptive Statistics (averages, measures of dispersion, types of distributions), Probability, Bayes’ Theorem, From a Given Population Determine What Samples Will Look Like (7 tests), Techniques of Sampling, From a Given Sample Determine What the Population Was (14 tests), Determine Whether Two Given Samples Came From the Same Population (15 tests), Working With Three or More Samples (10 tests), Emergency Statistics Guide, Regression Equations, Field Guide, 16 Tables. (College level.)
Hardback, 544 pages. $39 Answer key, paper, $6

Life of Fred: Linear Algebra    usually taken in the Junior (3rd) year Sample
Solving systems of equations with one, many, and no solutions. Gauss-Jordan elimination. Gaussian elimination. Matrices. LU-decomposition. Vector spaces. Inner product spaces. Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization process. Fourier series. Data fitting. Linear Transformations. Linear functionals. Dual spaces. Eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Markov chains. (Upper-division college level.)
Hardback, 352 pages. $49 Answer key, paper, $6

Life of Fred:  Chemistry  10th grade and above  Sample
A year of high school chemistry including . . .
Exponents; Lab Safety; Sulfuric Acid; Robert Bunsen and His Burner; Proper Diction; Five Branches of Philosophy; Metric and English Systems; Only Three Countries Use the English System; What Is an Element; Angstroms; Conversion Factors; Significant Digits; Rounding; Finding the Weight of a Single Helium Atom Using Only High School Lab Equipment; Scientific Notation; Mass vs. Weight; Standard Pressure and Boyle’s Law; Avogadro’s Number; Moles; the Scientific Method; Finding the Value of Absolute Zero using Only High School Lab Equipment; Kelvin Scale; Standard Temperature and Charles’s Law; Why a Mole of Any Gas at STP occupies about 22.4 Liters; Atomic and Molecular Weight; Ozone; Density; the Island of Cyprus Is Why Copper Is Cu instead of Co; History of the Atom; Periodic Table of the Elements and How It Was Constructed; Atomic Number; Mass Number; AMU Defined; Nine Isotopes of Helium; Radioactivity; 20 Metric Prefixes from Yocto to Yotta; Compounds vs. Mixtures; Heterogeneous vs. Homogeneous; Making Steel; Six Alloys of Gold; Why Wedding Rings Should Not Be Made from Gallium; the Seven Elements that Exist as Diatomic Molecules; Why Nails Are Galvanized; Standard Potentials of Elements; Electrolysis; Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions; Photosynthesis; Melting Wood; Metaphors vs. Similes; Nobel Gases; Lewis Structures; Joules; Finding the Atomic Weight of Carbon using Only High School Lab Equipment; Vapor Pressure; Desiccants; the Empty Space inside an Atom; Rutherford’s Experiment; Chemistry with Aristotle and Proclus; Mass Spectrometers; Alkali Metals; Alkaline Earth Metals; Enthalpy Change; Hess’s Law; Groups and Periods; Halogens; Oxidation Numbers; Duet and Octet Rules; How to Make Xenon Tetrafluoride; Metalloids; the Lanthanides and the Actinides; Precipitates; Hyperbole; Finding Empirical Formulas Experimentally; Balancing Skeleton Equations; Litotes; Electron Shells; Core and Valence Electrons; Ionic Bonding; Three-Dimensional Periodic Table; Covalent Bonding; Schrödinger’s Equation; Polar Covalent Bonding; Electronegativity; Dipole Moment; Electrolytes; Cations and Anions; Orbitals; Principal Quantum Numbers; Why Neon Lights Glow; Aufbau Principle; Acids; Molarity; Hydronium Ions; Why HF Is Not a Strong Acid; Computing Equilibrium Constants; pH; Le Châtelier’s Principle; Polyatomic Ions; Titration Experiments; 0.00115 Is Equal to 10 to What Power? Buffers and Why They Work; How Your Lungs Know They Should Breathe Harder When You Exercise; Hydrocarbon Chemistry; Alkanes, Alkenes, and Alkynes; Ring Compounds; Nine Classes of Organic Compounds: Haloalkanes, Amines, Alcohols, Aldehydes, Ketones, Carboxylic Acids, Ethers, Esters, and Amides; Biochemistry; Peptide Bonds; How Proteins Are Created inside Cells; Importance of Eating Complete Proteins.

ISBN: 978-1-937032-19-7, hardback, 240 pages. $29.

Life of Fred: Financial Choices Sample
If you want to wear clothes or eat or live indoors, this book may help you accomplish those goals.
» Three reasons to use a credit card
» The ultimate use of money
» The five places to invest
» How to retire in 24 years (Nothing financial is 100%—but this comes close
» Five suggestions for choosing a good spouse
We know that . . .
Health is much more important than making a pile of money.
Having a loving and caring family life is more precious than mansions and yachts.
But having a decent amount of money can add a lot of pleasure in life.  Being able to give things to your loved one (and to yourself) is the ultimate reason to acquire wealth.
This book might do more to increase the happiness of its readers than any of the math books (or the four high school language arts books) that I’ve written.
Here are some of the things covered . . .
What Jane Austen Said about a Single Man with a Good Fortune; the Difference Between Income and Assets; Between Expenses and Liabilities; Two Ways to Compute Your Financial Health—Budgeting vs. Net Worth; Needs vs. Wants; Three Arguments Against Overspending; Which Assets Lose Value Quickly; Fiat Currency; Figuring Future Value under Compound Interest; Figuring How Long to Pay off a $5,000 Loan at 18% Interest with Payments of $80/month (Most College Graduates with Science Majors Don’t Know How to Compute That); Setting Goals for Your Life: Financial/Physical/Family/Spiritual/Mental; Factors in Deciding Where to Live—16 Questions to Help Decide; Detailed Guide to the Five Asset Classes—Real Estate, Education, Paper, Things, and a Business That You Own; Buying Furniture, Clothes, and Cars; Buying vs. Renting a Place to Live; How to Decide How Much to Spend—Fancy or Cheap? How to Retire in 24 Years; Rule of 72; Investing in Real Estate—What to Buy and What Price to Pay; the Use of Leverage; Investing in Education—the Seven Advantages of College and Also Reasons Not to Go; Paper Investments—Stocks, Bonds, Mortgages, REITS, Certificates of Deposits, Mutual Funds; Investing in Things You Can Touch—Art, Baseball Cards, Rare Books, Gems, Gold and Silver; Owing Your Own Business; the Story of Inflation in Germany in the 1920s; One Key to Business Success; When to Hire—the Seven-times Rule; Arguments for Being Employed/Going on Welfare/Owning a Business; What It Means to Take an Oath; How to Choose Which Business to Own; When to Choose Which Business You Want to Be In; the First Step after Choosing Your Business; Reinventing Who You Are in 5,000 Hours; How to Keep Your Drive Alive; Money vs. Happiness; Seven Ways to Get Startup Capital; Dealing with Failure; Dealing with Age/Height/Being in Prison/Ill Health; Five Suggestions for Finding a Supportive Spouse; Dealing with Procrastination/ Windfalls/Falling in Love/It’s-free Offers; What Not to Talk about When You First Meet a Potential Spouse; What to Disclose on the Third Date; Checklist of Personal Habits for Success— How to Dress/How to Talk on the Phone/How to Make Eye Contact/How to Shake Hands; Learning Skills in Negotiating; Insurance—What to Buy and What Not to Buy; the Hard Task of Making Decisions That Close off Alternatives in Your Life; Leading a Balanced Life and Still Retiring in 24 Years; Nine Barriers to Financial Success; How Wealth in a Society Is Created; Overcoming the Psychological Barriers to Sunk Costs—Deciding Not to Continue Being a Dentist.

ISBN: 978-1-937032-18-0, hardback, 176 pages. $19