Introductory Mathematics

& Statistics
Chapter 1
Basic Mathematics

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-1
Learning Objectives

 Carry out calculations involving whole numbers

 Carry out calculations involving fractions
 Carry out calculations involving decimals
 Carry out calculations involving exponents
 Use and understand scientific notation
 Use and understand logarithms

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-2
1.1 Whole numbers
• The decimal system consists of
– Numerals
 Symbols, i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3 are numerals
 Represent natural numbers or whole numbers
 Used to count whole objects or fractions of them

– Integers
 Another name for whole numbers
 A positive integer is a number greater than zero
 A negative integer is a number less than zero

– Digits
 Numerals consist of one or more digits
Example: a three-digit number (e.g. 841) lies between 100
and 999

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-3
Basic mathematical operations
There are four basic mathematical operations that can be
performed on numbers:

• Multiplication: represented by 
• Division: represented by either  or /

• Addition: represented by 
• Subtraction: represented by 
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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-4
Rules for mathematical operations
Order of operations:

Multiplication and Division BEFORE Addition and

Subtraction

– However, to avoid any ambiguity, we can use parentheses (or

brackets), which take precedence over all four basic operations
5  49 5  ( 4  9)
– For example can be written as to remove this
ambiguity.
– As another example, if we wish to add numerals before
multiplying, we can use the parentheses as follows:
(4  9)  3  13  3
 39

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-5
Rules for mathematical operations
(cont…)
• Multiplication
– There are several ways of indicating that two numbers are to
be multiplied
 E.g. 4 multiplied by 6 can be expressed as
4  6 or 6  4
46
( 4)(6)
4(6) or ( 4)6
– Multiplying the same signs gives a positive result
 5   6   30
– Multiplying different signs gives a negative result
5   4   20

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-6
 Rules for mathematical operations
(cont…)
• Division
– There are several ways of indicating that two numbers are to be divided.
6
 E.g. 6  3, 6 / 3,
3

 The number to be divided (6) is called the numerator or dividend

 The number that is to be divided by (3) is called the denominator or
divisor
 The answer to the division is called the quotient

6
– Dividing the same signs gives a positive result  2
3
3 1
– Dividing different signs gives a negative result 6  
2

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-7
Rules for mathematical operations
(cont…)
• Addition
– Addition does have symmetry

 E.g. 56 65

– like signs—use the sign and add

– unlike signs—use sign of greater and subtract

• Subtraction
Two signs next to each other
– minus and a minus is a plus –(– 3) = 3
– minus and a plus is a minus –(+3) = –3

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-8
1.2 Fractions
• A fraction can be either proper or improper:
– Proper fraction—numerator
fraction less than denominator

6 23 156
• E.g. , ,
9 52 238
– Improper fraction—numerator
fraction greater than denominator

3 56 856
, ,
2 32 249

• The number on top of the fraction is called the numerator and

the bottom number is called the denominator
• The denominator cannot be zero, because if it is, the result is
undefined

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-9
ADDITION OF FRACTIONS

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-10
SUBTRACTION OF FRACTIONS

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-11
 MULTIPLICATION OF FRACTION

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-12
DIVISION OF FRACTION

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-13
1.3 Decimals
• Any fractions can be expressed as a decimal by dividing the
numerator by the denominator.

• A decimal consists of three components:

– an integer
– then a decimal point
– then another integer
• E.g. 0.3, 1.2, 5.69, 45.687

• Any zeros on the right-hand end after the decimal point and
after the last digit do not change the number’s value.
– E.g. 0.5, 0.50, 0.500 and 0.5000 all represent the same number.

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-14
Rules for decimals
Addition and subtraction
– Align the numbers so that the decimal points are directly
underneath each other.
 Example of an addition

Question : Add 2.3  0.34  1.672


2.3
 Step 1: align 0.34
1.672
 Step 2: add  4.312

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-15
 Rules for decimals (cont…)
Multiplication
• Step 1: Count the number of digits to the right of each decimal
point for each number
• Step 2: Add the number of digits in Step 1 to obtain a number, say x
• Step 3: Multiply the two original decimals, ignoring decimal points
• Step 4: Mark the decimal point in the answer to Step 3 so that there
are x digits to the right of the decimal point

Division
• Step 1: Count the number of digits that are in the divisor to the right of
the decimal point. Call this number x
• Step 2: Move the decimal point in the dividend x places to the right
(adding zeros as necessary). Do the same to the divisor
• Step 3: Divide the transformed dividend (Step 2) by the
transformed divisor (which now has no decimal point)
• The quotient of this division is the answer

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-16
1.4 Exponents
• An exponent or power of a number is written as a superscript to
a number called the base

• The base number is said to be in exponential form

• This tells us how many times the based is multiplied by itself

– E.g. 23  2  2  2  8

• Exponential form—an
– where a is the base
– where n is the exponent or power

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-17
Rules for exponents
• Positive exponents
n m
– If numbers with same base, a and a , then product
will have the same base. The exponent will be the sum
of the two original exponents

an  a m  a n m

– For the quotient, if the two numbers have the same

base, the exponent will be the difference between the
original exponents

am  an  amn

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-18
Rules for exponents (cont…)
• Positive exponents (cont…)
– A number in exponential form is raised to another exponent; the
result is the original base raised to the product of the exponents

a  n m
a nm

• Negative exponents
– A number expressed with a negative exponent is equal to the
reciprocal of the same number with the negative sign removed.

n 1
a  n
a
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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-19
Rules for exponents (cont…)
• Fractional exponents
– Exponents can be expressed as a fraction
1
 n is of the form k (where k is an integer)
1

 a is said to be the ‘kth root of a’. The kth root of a number is

k

one such that when it is multiplied by itself k times, you get that number

 a   a 
1 m 1
m
a k a
k a n n m n

• Zero exponent
– Any base raised to the power of 0 equals 1

a0  1
– Except for 00 , which is undefined

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-20
1.5 Scientific notation
– Scientific notation is a shorthand way of writing very large
and very small numbers
– It expresses the number as a numeral (less than 10)
multiplied by the base number 10 raised to an exponent
– The rule for writing a number N in scientific notation is:

where N  N'  10c

N’ = the digit before the reference position, followed by
the decimal point and the remaining digits in
number N.
c = the number of digits between the reference position
and the decimal point

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-21
1.5 Scientific notation (cont…)
• When c is positive
– If the decimal point is to the right of the reference position, the
value of c is positive
 e.g. 6325479.3 in scientific notation =

6.3254793  10 6

• When c is negative
– If the decimal point is to the left of the reference position, the
value of c is negative
 e.g. 0.0005849 in scientific notation =

5.849  104

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-22
 1.6 Logarithms
• Definition
– The logarithm of a number N to a base b is the power to
which b must be raised to obtain N
logb N
That is, if x  logb N, then N  bx
 E.g. log 4 64  3, so 43  64

• Characteristics and mantissa

– Suppose that the logarithm is expressed as an integer plus
a non-negative decimal fraction. Then:
 the integer is called the characteristic of the logarithm
 the decimal fraction is called the mantissa of the logarithm

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-23
 1.6 Logarithms (cont…)
• Antilogarithms

– The antilogarithm is the value of the number that

corresponds to a given logarithm

 E.g. Find the antilogarithm of 2.8756

From Table 5, the mantissa of 0.8756 corresponds to

N = 7.51. The characteristic of 2 corresponds to a
factor of 102.

Hence, the required number is 7.51 × 102 = 751.

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-24
1.6 Logarithms (cont…)
• Calculations involving logarithms
– Using the following properties we can find solutions to
problems containing logarithms

log A  B  log A  log B

log A  B  log A  log B

log A n  n  log B

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-25
Summary
• A thorough knowledge of fractions, decimals and
exponents is essential for an understanding of basic
mathematical principles.

• You should not be too reliant on modern technology to

solve every problem.

• You are far better prepared if you are also aware of the
processes that the calculator is undertaking when
performing calculations.

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PowerPoint slides to accompany Croucher, Introductory Mathematics and Statistics, 5e 1-26