Chapter 1 is on sets, real numbers and inequalities.
Since the concept of sets is new to most students, detail explanations and elaborations are given.
For the real number system, notations and terminologies that will be used in the rest of the book are introduced.
For solving polynomial inequalities, the method will be used later when we consider where a function is increasing or decreasing as well as where a function is convex or
concave.
Students should note that there is a shortcut for solving inequalities, using the Intermediate Value
Theorem discussed in Chapter 3.