Acknowledgments I would like to thank my colleague Matthew Wiers for many useful conversations and for helping with several of the Excel files bundled with the book. And thanks to all my previous students for their feedback on the courses which eventually led to this book; especially to Brandon Ausmus, Elisabeth Perkins, Michelle Moeller, Charles Walden, Shawn Richardson, and Ray Alfano I am grateful to Chris Coughlin at Springer for his support and encouragement throughout the process of writing the book and to various anonymous reviewers who have critiqued the manuscript and trialed it with their classes. Special thanks go to my wife Hajijah and family(Daniel, Adeline, and Nadia) for their patience and support, and to my parents, Maud and Harry(who passed away in 2009) without whom this would never have happenedAcknowledgments I would like to thank my colleague Matthew Wiers for many useful conversations and for helping with several of the Excel files bundled with the book. And thanks to all my previous students for their feedback on the courses which eventually led to this book; especially to Brandon Ausmus, Elisabeth Perkins, Michelle Moeller, Charles Walden, Shawn Richardson, and Ray Alfano. I am grateful to Chris Coughlin at Springer for his support and encouragement throughout the process of writing the book and to various anonymous reviewers who have critiqued the manuscript and trialed it with their classes. Special thanks go to my wife Hajijah and family (Daniel, Adeline, and Nadia) for their patience and support, and to my parents, Maud and Harry (who passed away in 2009), without whom this would never have happened. vii