Gary Rockswold teaches algebra in context, answering the question, "Why am I learning this?" By experiencing math through applications, students see how it fits into their lives, and they become motivated to succeed. Rockswold's focus on conceptual understanding helps students make connections between the concepts and as a result, students see the bigger picture of math and are prepared for future courses. This streamlined text covers linear, quadratic, nonlinear, exponential, and logarithmic functions and systems of equations and inequalities, which gets to the heart of what students need from this course. A more comprehensive college algebra text is also available.