The Handy Math Answer Book

The Handy Answer Book

by Patricia Barnes-Svarney, Thomas E. Svarney

From modern-day challenges such as balancing a checkbook, following the stock market, buying a home, and figuring out credit card finance charges to appreciating historical developments like the use of algebra by Mesopotamian mathematicians, this engaging resource addresses more than 1,000 questions relating to mathematics. Providing a complete overview—beginning with the early history of Pythagoras, Archimedes, and how some of the first calendars were invented—this guide helps answer questions surrounding the basics and fundamentals of algebra, calculus, geometry, and trigonometry. Organized in 16 chapters that cluster similar topics in an easily accessible format, this reference provides clear and concise explanations to paradoxes, theories, fundamentals of geometry, and other branches of mathematics, plus the numbers we see daily in statistics, financial and market reports, weather forecasts, real estate evaluations, games, and measurements of all kinds.

Genres: Mathematics, Science, Nonfiction, Reference

520 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

First I must appologize to my family for being the kid who always asked "Why?" But that one word asked many times led me to science and writing--especially in the physical sciences. And all of that led me to have quite an wide range of other writing topics--from weather in Antarctica to the many facets of Forensic Science. Yes, I've always been "the geek next door"... and with more than three dozen books to my credit (mostly on science), no one questions my geekiness anymore!

The latest book is from Visible Ink Press--The Handy Forensic Science Answer Book. Thomas Svarney is my co-author, and is one heck of a researcher. (He also has a science background, so we can discuss the mechanics of the climate without scratching our heads in puzzlement...Well, within reason!) The book was interesting to put together and we learned a great deal about forensics. It was especially fun since the subject includes so many different sciences.

Reviews

[Aloysius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a math major, but loved all the information on the different subjects of mathematics that was available. Although it's no substitute for actually learning the material in a classroom, this book will answer plenty of questions that young algebra, geometry, or calculus students may have.

[Erin Stuhlsatz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly I was just unimpressed. The explanations of math concepts weren't great; what the book did do well was explain the history of mathematics in a very interesting and accessible way.