I sincerely thank Dr. Melanie McNeil, Professor of Chemical Engineering at San Jose State University, for reading this book for accuracy and for all her helpful comments. I am grateful to Dr. Channing Robertson, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, for reviewing this book and, in general, for his sagacious guidance. I especially thank my mother, Maggie Ross, for reading this book and for her editorial help.

Without my wonderful agent, Sidney B. Kramer, and the staff of Mews Books, the Master Math series would not have been published. Thank you, Sidney! I am also thankful to Ron Fry and the staff of Career Press for their work in publishing and launching the original Master Math books as a successful series.

I am grateful to Emi Smith, Senior Acquisitions Editor, and Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning, for invigorating the Master Math series and improving the presentation. I especially thank Shawn Morningstar’s proficient work on layout and illustrations. I also very much appreciate Judith Littlefield’s work on illustrations and equations. Much thanks to Jenny Davidson for proofreading, Jeff Cooper for cover design, Larry Sweazy for indexing, as well as Stacy L. Hiquet, Sarah Panella, Heather Talbot, and Jordan Casey.

Finally, I deeply appreciate my beautiful and brilliant husband, David A. Lawrence, who worked side-by-side with me as we meticulously edited text and figures.