The Handy Math Answer Book

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About the Authors Thanks to science backgrounds and their numerous science publications, both Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas ...

The Handy Answer Book Series ® The Handy Answer Book for Kids (and Parents) The Handy Biology Answer Book The Handy Bug Answer B ...

THE HANDY MATH ANSWER BOOK MathFM 8/22/07 9:27 AM Page 3 ...

MathFM 8/22/07 9:27 AM Page ...

Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E. Svarney Detroit THE BOOK ANSWER HANDY MathFM 8/22/07 9:27 AM Page 5 ...

THE HANDY MATH ANSWER BOOK Copyright © 2006 by Visible Ink Press® This publication is a creative work fully protected by all app ...

vii HISTORY HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS ... 3 What Is Mathematics?... Early Counting and Numbers... Mesopotamian Numbers and Mathemat ...

viii THE BASICS MATH BASICS ... 67 Basic Arithmetic... All about Numbers... More about Numbers... The Concept of Zero... Basic M ...

CONTENTS ix MATH I N SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING MATH IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES ... 275 Physics and Mathematics... Classical Physics ...

x MATH ALL AROUND US MATH IN THE HUMANITIES ... 373 Math and the Fine Arts... Math and the Social Sciences... Math, Religion, an ...

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to ...

explains the various branches of mathematics, from fundamental arithmetic to com- plex calculus; “Math in Science and Engineerin ...

Such a work as The Handy Math Answer Bookcould not have been completed without the help of many generous people. The authors wou ...

Handy Math FM 8/19/07 5:17 PM Page xiv ...

HISTORY ...

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WHAT IS MATHEMATICS? What is the originof the word “mathematics”? According to most sources, the word “mathematics” is derived f ...

EARLY COUNTING AND NUMBERS What are some examplesof how early peoples counted? There were several different ways that early civi ...

How did certain ancient culturescount large numbers? It is not surprising that one of the earliest ways to count was the most ob ...