Math in Society
A survey of mathematics for the liberal arts major
Math in Society is a free, open textbook. This book is a survey of contemporary mathematical topics,
most non-algebraic, appropriate for a college-level quantitative literacy topics course for liberal arts
majors. The text is designed so that most chapters are independent, allowing the
instructor to choose a selection of topics to be covered. Emphasis is placed on the
applicability of the mathematics. Core material for each topic is covered in the main
text, with additional depth available through exploration exercises appropriate for
in-class, group, or individual investigation. This book is
appropriate for Washington State Community Colleges' Math 107.
The current version is 2.6, released July 2022.
Online homework for most chapters of this text are available for WAMAP.org (for Washington State faculty) and
MyOpenMath.com (for everyone else).
Accessibility Note: The Word files contain equations in Equation Editor format, and graphs and images
have alt-text, except for the graph theory, scheduling, and fractals chapters, and the solutions to selected exercises.
A screen reader friendly HTML version of
the book can be read on LibreTexts
Instructors: If you decide to use some or all of this book with your classes, please send me
an email letting me know, so I can have some idea if people are finding it useful.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This license means that you have full permission to modify the text to your
liking, have it printed, and use it in your classes. The only requirements are that
you include attribution to the original authors, and make your changes available with
the same permissions. If you are going to use printed copies without modifications, it is
appreciated if you order through
Lulu.com, or
Amazon,
which contributes a small amount to the maintenence of this work.
This text is intended to be a growing, collaborative work. Contributions of additional
chapters, exercises, and extended projects or investigations are welcome. Please
email the maintainer with any
contributions.
In the past, I had individually editioned each chapter. Beginning with the second edition of the book, I will now be changing the edition of the
whole book at once when changes are made. There will likely be sub-editions (like 2.1) with typo fixes but no major page/exercise number changes.
Creation of this text was supported, in part, by the Transition Math Project and
the Open Course Library.
Photo credit: Lauren Manning
