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Do you feel you missed out in maths at school; that there are gaps in your understanding that make you avoid the subject? If so this series is for you. It is not aimed at preparing anyone for exams, so it does not follow a set curriculum. In fact, it jumps all over the place, illustrated by stories and examples taken from real life. In that way all the mystery surrounding maths is taken away and you will fond that it can even be fun – yes, fun!
I expect you have heard that maths is a language, indeed a universal one. Like all languages it was invented by people. Different languages refer to the same object with different words Look at this one: It is called a ‘chair’ or ‘chaise’ in French , or ‘sella’ in Latin.
Why? Why were those words chosen for this object? Well, academics might puzzle over this, but we just take them for granted and learn the appropriate name for whichever country we are taking our holidays in. However, it helped me to understand the language by thinking about the people who invented it, especially why they chose cetain names for things, and symbols too. What sort of people were, and are, they?
They are inquisitive; they want to find out how things develop, for example, if they see a series of numbers like 1,3,5,7 they want to know what will come next!
They are always looking for shortcuts and they are not afraid to invent things to make their lives easier. For example, they invented names for the numbers we use; it’s much easier to write 9 + 9 than to have to count 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 + 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1 ! We will come across lots of their shortcut inventions, for example, here is another one;
3 + 7 times 2 = 17. Here we multiply the 7 by the 2 and add the 3.
But how can they tell you to add the 3 to the 7 before multiplying by the 2? Ha, they invented brackets to tell you to do this:
(3+7) times 2 = 10 times 2 = 20.
OOPS! I just used another shortcut without to explaining it! The sign ‘=’ saves writing ‘equals’ and, instead of writing ‘times’, we use a symbol instead. Often, it’s ‘x’ but I use ‘*’. These are shortcuts; why write lots of words if a sign can be used instead? We will be meeting more examples and I will explain what they mean and also, I will be explaining why the rules we meet work – no learning without understanding in these ‘Bites’!
Finally, mathematicians strive for simplicity and beauty – yes maths can beautiful!
For example, one of them thought that fractions looked ugly and he replaced them with decimals instead.
4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 1/10, 1/100, 1/1000 on so on (Ugh. Ugly!)
4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 and so one. (That’s better, no nasty fractions!)
So, do think of maths as being a language; one you will learn, just like you might choose to learn French to improve your holiday experiences. Or remember the time you learned to ride a bicycle. At first someone held the saddle to stop you falling off, then, one day, they let go! You were fine until you realised, they had done so and you promptly fell off! Soon you mastered it, and you have never forgotten how to ride. Well, I am going to ‘hold the saddle’ while you get your balance and soon you will have the confidence to use maths as and when you need to.