One of the argument usually advanced in favor of Precalculus,
a concept we seem to owe solely to the acumen of American Educologists
since nowhere else in the world is Precalculus
to be found, is that we need to introduce the elementary functions
before students can investigate them. I have discussed this idea at
some
length in my column in the AMATYC
Review(Spring 1999)
and many of the ideas there are at the basis of RTF.