CHAPTER1 Our Number System ....................................................................
In This Chapter
- The development of our
number system - Place value and how to
use it - How to express powers of
ten using exponents - Writing very large num-
bers in scientific notation
When asked to think about the word “math,” the first image
most people are likely to have is one that involves numbers.
This makes sense, because most of what we do in the name
of math uses numbers in one way or another. Some would
say that math is really about patterns, and that numbers and
shapes are the vehicles, so arithmetic and geometry become
two primary areas of mathematical thinking. There’s a wider
world to mathematics, but you have to start somewhere, and
generally you start with numbers.
In this chapter, we’ll take a look at the system of numbers
we most commonly use. We’ll explore how the system works
and learn to identify the value of a digit based upon its
position in the number. We’ll examine how our system deals
with fractions, or parts of a whole, and we’ll explain some
variations in the way numbers are written, techniques to
avoid long strings of zeros, and a method of writing very large
and very small numbers called scientific notation.