Mathematics for Beginners

Explore the many ways maths can help make sense out of life.

This book won't test your mental maths or teach you countless ways to find x. It will show you just how fascinating maths can be.

Can maths make people rich? Can formulas predict which sports teams will win more games? Can equations explain the mysteries of the universe? The short answer to all these is yes.

Mathematics for Beginners explores and explains the ways that the tools of mathematics help people make sense of the world around them, predict the future and, just maybe, how to make life itself better.

Chapters in this book include:

What is maths?
What is maths for?
How do you do maths?

The beginning of maths
What did the first numbers look like, and what did people use them for?

Numbers
Number shapes, number patterns, prime numbers and numbers that go on and on and on...to infinity.

Shapes and measuring
How and why people use the tools of mathematics to describe the shapes of everything, from everyday objects to the entire universe.

How maths is shown
Making graphs, drawing diagrams and using pictures to explain the world better, and to help solve problems.

Prove it
In mathematics, you can find an answer to a problem and know for certain that it is correct. But how? With a proof.

Probability and statistics
Maths can tell you the truth and predict the future - up to a point. How does it do this, and how can you spot when people are (mis)using maths to lie?

Maths, computers and the future
No mathematics, no computers. But what kind of maths do people use to make computers work?

Mathematical models
Describing real-world problems with maths to give insights into future weather, profits, and even human behaviour.

What's next?
Jobs in maths