Basic Math & Pre-Algebra For Dummies
Chapter One
Playing the Numbers Game
In This Chapter
* Finding out how numbers were invented
* Looking at a few familiar number sequences
* Examining the number line
* Understanding four important sets of numbers
One of the useful things about numbers is that they're conceptual, which
means that in an important sense, they're all in your head. (This fact,
however, probably won't get you out of having to know about them - nice
try!)
For example, you can picture three of anything: three cats, three baseballs,
three cannibals, three planets. But just try to picture the concept of three all
by itself, and you find it's impossible. Oh, sure, you can picture the numeral
3, but the threeness itself - much like love or beauty or honor - is beyond
direct understanding. But after you have the concept of three (or four, or a
million), you have access to an incredibly powerful system for understanding
the world: mathematics.
In this chapter, I give you a brief history of how numbers came into bei ... read full excerpt from Basic Math & Pre-Algebra For Dummies ebook
