How_To_Be_Good_At_Math

Foreword

Our lives wouldn’t be the same without maths. In fact, everything would stop

without it. Without numbers we couldn’t count a thing, there would be no money,

no system of measuring, no shops, no roads, no hospitals, no buildings, no ... well,

more or less “nothing” as we know it.

For example, without maths we couldn’t build houses, forecast tomorrow’s weather,

or fly a plane. We definitely couldn’t send an astronaut into space! If we didn’t

understand numbers, we wouldn’t have TV, the internet, or smartphones. In fact,

without numbers, you wouldn’t even be reading this book, because it was created

on a computer that uses a special number code based on 0s and 1s to store

information and make thousands of calculations in a second.

Understanding maths also helps us to understand the world around us. Why do

bees make their honeycombs out of hexagons? How can we describe the spiral

shape formed by a seashell? Maths holds the answers to these questions and

many more.

This book has been written to help you get better at maths, and to learn to love it.

You can work through it with the help of an adult, but you can also use it on your

own. The numbered steps will talk you through the examples. There are also

problems for you to solve yourself. You’ll meet some helpful robots, too. They’ll give

you handy tips and remind you of important mathematical ideas.

Maths is not a subject, it’s a language, and it’s a universal language. To be able

to speak it gives you great power and confidence and a sense of wonder.

Carol Vorderman

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