Introduces the reader to the main ideas of mathematics, and painlessly demonstrates how they are expressed in symbols while helping to overcome the fear of math and begin to appreciate the science that Einstein called the poetry of logical ideas.

The author offers a host of methods, drawn from many cultures, for tackling real-world math problems and explodes the myth that women and minorities are not good at math.

Numerical ability is an essential skill for everyone studying the biological sciences but many students are frightened by the 'perceived' difficulty of mathematics, and are nervous about applying mathematical skills in their chosen field of study. Having taught introductory maths and statistics for many years, Alan Cann understands these challenges and just how invaluable an accessible, confidence building textbook could be to the fearful student. Unable to find a book pitched at the right level, that concentrated on why numerical skills are useful to biologists, he wrote his own. The result is Maths from Scratch for Biologists , a highly instructive, informal text that explains step by step how and why you need to tackle maths within the biological sciences. Features: * An accessible, jargon-busting approach to help readers master basic mathematical, statistical and data handling techniques in biology * Numerous end of chapter problems to reinforce key concepts and encourage students to test their newly acquired skills through practise * A handy, time-saving glossary * A supplementary website with numerous problems and self-test exercises

Maths is an essential skill but many people fear that they will never pick up the maths that they failed to understand in school. Don't worry. Most people know more maths than they realise, Steve Chinn is your guide to understanding the 'basic facts' of maths as you will use it in daily lifeThere are many reasons why the inability to 'do' maths affects so many children, and follows them into adulthood, and it has little to do with intelligence. The major reason is anxiety, the best way to overcome that anxiety is to build on existing knowledge. Everyone has some maths skills and knowledge that can be extended to many more skills and knowledge. The Fear of Maths: How to Overcome It is for parents and teachers looking for a way to encourage and help their children. It is based on teaching maths as a set of principles (rather than a series of facts to be memorised) to be understood, and how they can be used in various situations, to make numbers seem less threatening and, perhaps for the first time, to begin to make sense.Numbers are integral to everyday life, from checking the cost of shopping and understanding a train timetable to calculating the best value mobile phone deal, and Steve Chinn brings maths into everyday life. Providing a solid foundation The Fear of Maths: How to Overcome It will inspire the confidence that will make learning maths easier.

B> This new book is a source of outstanding ideas, activities, guidelines, and tools for dealing effectively with an issue that impacts both teachers and students: math anxiety. The author draws techniques from educational psychology, puts math studies in the larger contexts of learning and cognition, develops therapies, and sets guidelines. It is a practical guide that shows how to identify and cope with anxieties, how to teach the curriculum without sacrificing student confidence or enthusiasm, how to motivate mathematics learning and maintain standards, and how to make math learning fun without avoiding difficult topics or diluting the challenge. Elementary school teachers. A Longwood Professional Book.

Science is based not only on observation and experiment, but on theory as well. As Einstein said, "Theory tells us what to measure." And theories are often crystallized into succinct calculations, like those made using Einstein's famous E = mc2. This book looks at fifty such great calculations, exploring how and why they were developed and assessing their impact on the history of science. As the author shows, many significant scientific calculations are quite simple and fairly easy to understand, even for readers will little math background. But their implications can be surprising and profound. For example, what links a famous comet and the cost of an annuity? Why do scientists claim there is "dark matter" in the universe if it can't be observed? How does carbon-based life on Earth depend on a quirk of nuclear physics? The answer to each question is an illuminating calculation. This accessible, engaging book will help you understand these breakthroughs and how they changed our view of life and the world.

Forget your classroom nightmares and discover how numbers can enhance and illuminate your world! How can math help you bet on horses or win in Vegas? What’s the foolproof way to solve Sudoku? How can probability teach you to calculate your chances of survival in Russian roulette? In this irreverent and entertaining guide to mathematics, Lawrence Potter takes the fear out of everything from long division to percentages. Using fascinating puzzles and surprising examples, he shows us how math is connected with the world we encounter every day, from how the VAT works to why weather forecasts are wrong, from winning at Monopoly to improving your mental arithmetic. Along the way you’ll also discover who invented numbers, whether animals can count, and what nuns have to do with multiplication.