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University of Padova

Advanced Precalculus: Geometry, Trigonometry and Exponentials

University of Padova via FutureLearn

Overview

Take your precalculus knowledge to the next level

This course is the second of two precalculus courses from the University of Padova, providing you with the advanced mathematical skills required to complete a first course in calculus.

You’ll get to grips with more challenging precalculus topics: plane and solid geometry; logarithms and exponentials; equalities and inequalities; and trigonometric functions and identities.

By the end of this course you’ll have gained the skills to support further mathematical studies.

This course is for anyone who wants to brush up on their basic mathematical skills, particularly students in the last year of high school, or at the beginning of undergraduate studies, who intend to take a first course in calculus.

Ideally, you’ll have already taken the first course - Precalculus: the Mathematics of Numbers, Functions and Equations or be familiar with the topics covered in it, and have a basic knowledge of high school mathematics.

Syllabus

  • Exponential and logarithmic functions
    • Course presentation
    • Exponential functions
    • The Euler number
    • Functions and their inverses
    • Logarithms
    • It's quiz time
    • Test yourself
  • Trigonometry
    • Trigonometry by triangles
    • Trigonometry by the unit circle
    • Graphs of trigonometric functions
    • Trigonometric identities
    • Harmonic motion
    • The function arctan
    • More inverse trig functions, and a few others
    • It's quiz time
    • Test yourself
  • Geometry
    • Geometry of the plane: points, segments, lines
    • Distance and circles
    • Ellipses
    • Parabolas and hyperbolas
    • Level curves of quadratic functions
    • Lengths, areas, and volumes
    • It's quiz time
    • Test yourself
  • From equations to spirals
    • Equations with exponentials and logarithms
    • Growth and decay problems
    • Trigonometric equations
    • Inequalities with logarithms and exponentials
    • Trigonometric inequalities
    • Polar coordinates
    • It's quiz time
    • Test yourself
    • Final step and revision test

Taught by

Francis Clarke

Tags

Reviews

4.8 rating, based on 45 Class Central reviews

4.8 rating at FutureLearn based on 17 ratings

Start your review of Advanced Precalculus: Geometry, Trigonometry and Exponentials

  • The best maths course I have ever did in my whole life with best professors. The basic precalculus course was a bit easy for me and I quickly advanced to this one. I refreshed lots of math knowledge from before and learned new things at the same time, much better than all other students I know. Fascinating course, my compliments. I already miss it!
  • Graham Divall
    A very good course which I found, personally, difficult and demanding. A lot of fellow students appeared to have strong mathematical backgrounds and were probably familiar with many of the topics covered. I found a tendency for the videos to spea…
  • Anonymous
    This and the earlier precalculus course from the University of Padova are two of the best courses on FutureLearn, both challenging but enjoyable. They have a regular structure, the theory of each topic is discussed followed by practical examples of…
  • Anonymous
    The best maths course I have ever did in my whole life with best professors. The basic precalculus course was a bit easy for me and I quickly advanced to this one. I refreshed lots of math knowledge from before and learned new things at the same time, much better than all other students I know. Fascinating course, my compliments. I already miss it!
  • Anonymous
    The instructors accompanied by the visualisations, the exercises and the quizzes made it very engaging, fun, intuitive and interesting. The course also spoke about next steps and gave a bit of history that added to its quality. Thank you for making this course.
  • Profile image for Kevin Griffiths
    Kevin Griffiths
    Very enjoyable. All the tutors are knowledgable, enthusiastic and engaging. The structure of the course, with a lecture followed by worked examples which you are encouraged to try yourself, works really well. The pace is quite fast and some of the…
  • Lav
    This is fantastic course tailored for the people who wish to refresh their knowledge of selected Math topics from the high school.
    I highly recommend it.
  • Anonymous
    Initial Videos gave complete step by step guidance and clarity of the topic. Though challenging, but not impossible. The task questions were well set, kind of covering most of the concepts and the solving videos/pdf were helpful to mark our work or address my misconception or error. Thoroughly enjoyed working on them, reignited the passion in me for mathematics and also enabled me to replenish my subject knowledge.
  • Profile image for Miha Veber
    Miha Veber
    Very well explained, just the right amount of problems to solve (not too much, not too little) in my opinion since this was just a refresher for me and I had some prior knowledge about the subject.
  • Anonymous
    A great deal of hard work was put into this MOOC, one of the most thorough (and demanding, but that is not a criticism) that I have done. All involved showed a love for their subject and the wish to share that. Excellent!
  • Anonymous
    I like the sequence of the topics increasing the complexity and culminating with the amalgamation of the knowledge in week 4 which i would have like to have more time to spend upon . Many thanks i did get all the information i was looking for and looking forward to progress and further my knowledge in calculus .
  • Excellent and amazing course. I found new things to learn. Teachers gave an excellent and professional support. I would recommend this amazing course.

    Thank you very much.
  • Minh Nguyen
    Very demanding zciriculum and fun, and serious concentration is needed,. Was a little tool fast to take in 8-10 minutes per section of the course though, I had to play it some time more than once to capture all of the technical information and answe…
  • Ged Langosz
    One of the best Future Learn courses that I have done. I have signed up for over 40 courses so far, and this easily rates amounts the best.

    The course content was comprehensive. It set its target at the correct audience. The material is challenging but provides a correct in depth discussion of the subject.

    The material was presented in informative, friendly lectures which were easy to understand. This was backed up with extensive challenging exercises. The answer of these were provided in great detail.

    This course provides a solid grounding for any student who is about to start learning calculus.

    I thoroughly recommend it.
  • Anonymous
    Maths is for active engagement and this course is both engaging and varied in approach.

    The format is well balanced with ludid expositions, practical problem-solving demonstrations and post quiz comments and clarifications. Rather than a formulaic approach there were some unexpected twists and turns. There were also references to a wider field of Maths as well as a wider world.

    The course is suitable for any advanced student - post as well as pre-university, whether learning the material for the first time or in need of practice.
  • Anonymous
    Very nice course, was DEFINITELY challenging b/c of the CONSTANT set theory notation. But omg, after a while it just clicked and I could understand it. I guess b/c i was exposed so long to it. Especailly compared to other courses online, I would definitely say this is prob the hardest, maybe not the MOST thorough, but its proofs are rigorous as math should be, and is definitely a taste of what REAL math is, if you know what I mean. Thank you for the great time!! and Good Luck all :D
  • Anonymous
    This is not a course to rush through but taking the time will be worth it. I didn't have time to do the course properly so used it more as revision.

    The lectures are clear and things are quite well explained - I also appreciated how the lecturers showed their sense of humour and are happy to respond to comments and questions you might have. They're genuinely encouraging which was something I didn't expect.

    The notes aren't as great but do look up online maths textbooks for supplementary info!
  • Anonymous
    I thought the course was quite interesting. I thought the course would be about differentiation or integration but I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed most of it and thought it was a nice difficulty and I didn't find it so hard that I couldn't sleep at night. I quite liked that you were shown how to do all the questions in week 1 but a little disappointed that it didn't return for the future weeks. I especially liked it when Francis showed his humorous side. His circle joke was legendary.
  • Anonymous
    Francis's teaching was excellent, clear easy to understand and rigorous. I found the other course tutors unclear and difficult to understand at times and although their working was correct they did seem to overcomplicate explanations and often used a slightly different notation to Francis, so I did find this a bit confusing. I am disappointed that the course has come to an end. I do hope that there will be more courses like this in future as I have really enjoyed it..
  • Anonymous
    A very thorough course well presented with worked solutions to help if in difficulty.
    Any comments posing questions are answered very quickly by course staff, I think they must work shifts to give such immediate responses, the most attentive monitoring of all the courses that I have done. I am just sorry that owing to other commitments I fell behind on this particular course, very rare for me not to complete a course. I shall probably sign up when it is re-run.

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