The Handy Math Answer Book

Pi in the Sky(online maga-

zine), 459

Pi Mu Epsilon, 445

Piazzi, Giuseppe, 30

Pie chart, 264, 265 (ill.)

Place value, 9, 72

Planck, Max, 33–34, 281–82,

282 (ill.)

Planck’s constant, 281

Plane, 179

Plane geometry, 165. See

alsoAnalytic geometry;

Geometric measurements;

Geometry; Solid geometry;

Trigonometry

arcs, 184

Babylonians, 11

circles, 183–84, 184 (ill.)

definition of, 178–79

Euclidean geometry, 168

plane, 179

polygon, 179–81, 180

(ills.), 180–81 (table)

Pythagorean Theorem,

183

quadrilaterals, 183

right triangles, 183

surface, 179

triangles, 181–83

Plane surveying, 330

Planets, 291, 291 (table),

292, 293–94

human age/weight on,

440–41, 440 (ill.), 441

(table)

Plant Hardiness Zone Map,

405

Plato, 114, 114 (ill.), 186,

187 (ill.)

Platonic solids, 186

Playing cards, 248

Plus(online magazine), 459

p.m., 397, 398–99

Point, 171

Point of tangency, 176

Point-slope equation, 196

Point spread, 436–37

Points (real estate transac-

tion), 414

Poisson, Denis, 327

Poker, 431–32

Polar coordinate system, 239

Polar coordinates, 198–99,

199 (ill.)

Political polling, 402

Polling, 402

Pollio, Marcus Vitruvius, 57

Pollock, Jackson, 373

Polygon, 179–81, 180 (ills.),

180–81 (table)

Polyhedron, 185, 185 (table)

Polynomial degree, 150

Polynomial equations. See

alsoAlgebra; Logarithms

degree of, 150

difference of cubes, 153

difference of squares, 152

discriminant, 156

dividing polynomials, 152

factoring, 155–56

factoring polynomials,

152

Fundamental Theorem of

Algebra, 155

multiplying, 151

perfect square, 153

polynomial, 150

polynomials with one and

no roots, 154

quadratic equation,

154–56

quartic equations, 151

roots of a polynomial,

153–54

sum of cubes, 153

Popular Science(magazine),

452

Population, 256, 256 (ill.),

257

Population dynamics, 315

Population growth, 318–19

Population pyramid, 381–82,

381 (ill.)

Poristics, 134

Posamentier, Alfred S., 453

Postulates, 115, 177–78

Potential infinity, 129

Pound, 47–48

Power rules for derivatives,

226

Powerball Lottery, 430

Powers of ten, 88–90, 89

(ill.), 90 (table)

Precambrian Era, 297

Predicate calculus, 110–12

Premises, 104

Pressure, 466–67

Price/earnings ratio, 391

Prime factorization, 98

Prime Meridian, 415–16, 416

(ill.)

Prime numbers, 83–84, 84

(table), 85, 85 (table)

Prime Obsession: Berhard

Riemann and the Greatest

Unsolved Problem in Math-

ematics(Derbyshire), 454

Primitives, 116

Principia Mathematica,

31–32

Printing, 23

Prism, 187

Probability, 27. See also

Applied mathematics; Sta-

tistics

addition rules, 251–52,

252 (ill.)

Bayes’s theorem, 250–51

chance, 248

combinations, 253–54

compound events,

247–48

conditional, 250

events, 246, 249

examples using, 254–55

“gambler’s ruin,” 252–53

games, 429–30

independent events, 250

law of total probability,

252

multiplication rules, 252

mutually exclusive

events, 251

outcome, 249

permutations, 253–54

playing cards, 248

proportions, 246

random, 248–49, 249

(ill.)

random walk, 254

ratios, 246

500 relative frequency, 249

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