Brief Review of Algebra and Trigonometry for Calculus

Minimum Requirements

Before you begin this course, you must, at the least, have a firm grasp of the concepts listed below.

Geometry

points and lines
similar triangles
Pythagoras’ theorem
perimeters, areas and volumes of regular geometric figures

Algebra

the real line
arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of algebraic expressions
factoring
distributive law, factoring polynomials
completing a perfect square
quadratic formula
exponents
radicals and rationalization

Trigonometry

angles in radians
trigonometric functions
graphs of trigonometric functions
common values of trigonometric functions
trigonometric identities
laws of sine and cosine

The material presented in this unit is only a brief review of algebra and trigonometry, it is by no means a comprehensive treatment of what is required in this course; in each unit, we continue working on these prerequisites.