Math Skills

The math skills that you need for this course are the equivalent of MTH 60 or High School Algebra. I get to assume that you have reasonable comfort with basic math operations and fractions using numbers of all sizes. You will certainly be able to use calculators but you will need to be able to identify what part of what your calculator says is meaningful.

Exponents

Math rules for exponents are described in rather more detail than you might want but if you need to review this will cover all the bases. We will be doing a lot of this very casually so start practicing now so you will be able to follow along in class.

Here is an example of how I work with exponents in sample problem.

Summary of Process:

regroup to separate 'numbers' and exponents

do exponent part

do numerical part (on calculator if needed)

report solution

Activity: Student practice on Sample HW Problem

HW: Math

Algebra

The basic rule for this class is as long as you 'do the same thing to both sides of the equation' you should be good. As we discussed take it one step at a time and rewrite the expression after each step. When you're an algebra fiend you can skip steps and nobody will yell at you:)

Here is an example of how I work with algebra in sample problem.

Activity: Student practice on Sample HW Problem

HW: Math

Scientific Prefixes

NIST is our national department of standards and measurements who maintains a list of scientific prefixes. We are only interested in those from 10^-12 to 10⁺¹² for the purposes of this class. Depending on which version of GS104 you are taking we may use some of these more than others but they are all in general use both in science and in society. It is interesting to note that this web resource indicates that giga should be pronounced "jig-a". On the other hand that conflicts with the Cambridge Dictionary pronunciation. My personal experience is completely consistent with the Cambridge Dictionary version and I have never heard any other except for Doc Brown in 'Back to the Future'.

Activity: Practice with Scientific Prefixes: Match and rank from 'smallest' to 'largest'. Match abbreviations.

Assessment: Go take the Science Prefixes: First Step quiz on the LMS (Week 1)

Scientific Notation

Why? It's about making numbers accessible by expressing them as a comprehensible (1to 10 or maybe 100) number of 'chunks' and then trying to get a grip on what the 'chunk' represents. Here's a Gizmodo article about trying to understand really big numbers (that also applies to really small numbers). This echos the discussion we had.

HW: Math

If you win a big Powerball jackpot (4 10⁸$) what does the Gizmodo article estimate to be your hourly payment for the rest of your life?

Here's 3 min PBS video on expressing numbers using scientific notation

Activity: Student practice on Sample HW Problem

HW Math

Assignment: HW Math

Complete and assemble your solutions to all the HW problems listed here. Scan to a pdf and turn in on LMS. Please review HW format expectations for guidance about your homework solutions.

Assignment: Reading

Go on to the Unit Conversion breadcrumb to learn a 'reliable' method for doing unit conversions