The Complete Book of Fun Maths E-Book

Philip Carter

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Seitenzahl: 138

Beschreibung

The idea of this book is to help build confidence with maths via a series of tests and puzzles. After a gentle 'warm-up' section, the puzzles and tests get progressively more challenging over the course of the book. There is a hints section for readers who get stuck, as well as a complete set of answers for every test at the back of the book. After the 'warm-up' section, there are puzzles and tests on 'lateral thinking', 'fun with numbers', 'logic puzzles', 'geometrical puzzles' and 'difficult puzzles'. Readers will soon become familiar and comfortable with a range of tricks and tests, from magic number squares to Fibonacci numbers.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Titles in The IQ Workout Series

Title Page

Copyright Page

Introduction

Section 1 - Puzzles, tricks and tests

Chapter 1 - The work out

Chapter 2 - Think laterally

Chapter 3 - Test your numerical IQ

Chapter 4 - Funumeration

Chapter 5 - Think logically

Chapter 6 - The logic of gambling and probability

Chapter 7 - Geometrical puzzles

Chapter 8 - Complexities and curiosities

Section 2 - Hints, answers and explanations

Hints

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Answers and explanations

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Glossary and data

Glossary

Algebra

Aliquot part

Arabic system

Area

Arithmetic

Automorphic number

Binary

Cube number

Decimal system

Degree

Dodecahedron

Duodecimal

Equality

Equation

Factorial

Fibonacci sequence

Geometry

Heptagonal numbers

Hexagonal numbers

Hexominoes

Hexadecimal

Icosahedron

Magic square

Mersenne numbers

Natural numbers

Octagonal numbers

Palindromic numbers

Parallelogram

Pentagonal numbers

Percentage

Perfect number

Pi

Polygon

Prime number

Product

Pyramidal numbers

Quotient

Rational numbers

Reciprocal

Rectangle

Rhombus

Sexadecimal

Sidereal year

Solar year

Square number

Sum

Tetrahedral

Topology

Triangular numbers

Data

Section 4 Appendices

Appendix 1 - Fibonacci and nature’s use of space

The Fibonacci series

Nature’s use of space

Appendix 2 - Pi

Appendix 3 - Topology and the Mobius strip

Titles inThe IQ Workout Series

Increase Your Brainpower: Improve your creativity, memory, mental agility and intelligence 0-471-53123-5

Maximize Your Brainpower: 1000 new ways to boost your mental fitness 0-470-84716-6

IQ Testing: 400 ways to evaluate your brainpower 0-471-53145-6

More IQ Testing: 250 new ways to release your IQ potential 0-470-84717-4

Psychometric Testing: 1000 ways to assess your personality, creativity, intelligence and lateral thinking 0-471-52376-3

More Psychometric Testing: 1000 new ways to assess your personality, creativity, intelligence and lateral thinking 0-470-85039-6

Copyright © 2004 by Philip Carter and Ken Russell

Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,West Sussex PO19 8SQ, England

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN : 978-1-907-31208-3

Typeset in 11=14 pt Garamond by Mathematical Composition Setters Ltd, Salisbury,Wiltshire. Printed and bound in Great Britain by T.J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall.

This book is printed on acid-free paper responsibly manufactured from sustainable forestry, in which at least two trees are planted for each one used for paper production.

Introduction

I’m very well acquainted too with matters mathematical,I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical.

W. S. Gilbert

Bertrand Russell once said that ‘Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true’.

The subject of mathematics can be challenging, fascinating, confusing and frustrating, but once you have developed an interest in the science of numbers, a whole new world is opened up as you discover their many characteristics and patterns.

We all require some numerical skills in our lives, whether it is to calculate our weekly shopping bill or to budget how to use our monthly income, but for many people mathematics is a subject they regard as being too difficult when confronted by what are considered to be its higher branches. When broken down and analysed, and explained in layman’s terms, however, many of these aspects can be readily understood by those of us with only a rudimentary grasp of the subject.

The basic purpose of this book is to build up readers’ confidence with maths by means of a series of tests and puzzles, which become progressively more difficult over the course of the book, starting with the gentle ‘Work out’ of Chapter 1 to the collection of ‘Complexities and curiosities’ of Chapter 8. There is also the opportunity, in Chapter 3, for readers to test their numerical IQ. For many of the puzzles throughout the book, hints towards finding a solution are provided, and in all cases the answers come complete with full detailed explanations.

Many of the problems in this book are challenging, but deliberately so, as the more you practise on this type of puzzle, the more you will come to understand the methodology and thought processes necessary to solve them and the more proficient you will become at arriving at the correct solution. Of equal importance, we set out to show that dealing with numbers can be great fun, and to obtain an understanding of the various aspects of mathematics in an entertaining and informative way can be an uplifting experience.