Maths

Anyone who works with any branch of science, technology or engineering needs to be able to talk about figures.
This is the written form of the English cardinal and ordinal numbers:
CARDINAL
1 one
2 two
3 three
4 four
5 five
6 six
7 seven
8 eight
9 nine
10 ten
11 eleven
12 twelve
13 thirteen
14 fourteen
15 fifteen
16 sixteen
17 seventeen
18 eighteen
19 nineteen
20 twenty
21 twenty-one
30 thirty
40 forty
50 fifty
60 sixty
70 seventy
80 eighty
90 ninety
100 one / a hundred
101 one / a hundred and one
221 two hundred and twenty-one
1,000 one / a thousand
2,308 two thousand three hundred and
eight
10,000 ten thousand
100,000 one / hundred thousand
555,555 five hundred and fifty-five
thousand five hundred and fifty-five
1,000,000 one / a million
5,000,001 five million and one

ORDINAL
1st first
2nd second
3rd third
4th fourth
5th fifth
6th sixth
7th seventh
8th eighth
9th ninth
10th tenth
11th eleventh
12th twelfth
13th thirteenth
14th fourteenth
15th fifteenth
16th sixteenth
17th seventeenth
18th eighteenth
19th nineteenth
20th twentieth
21st twenty-first
30th thirtieth
40th fortieth
50th fiftieth
60th sixtieth
70th seventieth
80th eightieth
90th ninetieth
100th hundredth
101st one hundred and first
221st two hundred and twenty-first
1,000th thousandth
2,308th two thousand three hundred
eighth
10,000th ten thousandth
100,000th hundred thousandth
555,555th five hundred and fifty-five
thousand five hundred and fifty-fifth
1,000,000th millionth
5,000,001st five million and first

Can you write the following in mathematical notation??

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

eight hundred forty-five ______________________

a hundred and nine ______________________
four hundred forty-two thousand, two hundred ______________________
eighty-one ______________________
nine hundred and seventeen thousand and five ______________________
seven hundred and eighty-six thousand and five hundred and forty ______________________
two hundred million, eight hundred and ninety thousand and four hundred and sixty-three ______________________
eight billion, three hundred and fifty-six million, three hundred and fifty-six thousand and nine hundred and seven ______________________

Remarks

The Figure 0
In the English language the figure 0 may be called:
nought in general (British English)
zero
in general (American English)
in measurements of temperature (British and American English)
in count-downs (British and American English)
score in team games, e.g. football (American English)
oh
when each figure is said separately (e.g. in phone numbers, account numbers etc.)
nil
score in team games, e.g. football (British English)
love
in tennis and similar games

A comma (,) is used in English to write thousands and millions and a point (.) to indicate decimals.
123,500
15.3

2, 4, 6, 8 are called even numbers; 1, 3, 5, 7 are called odd numbers; 3, 5, 7, 11 are prime numbers.

Percentages and decimals

28% twenty-eight per cent

100% a / one hundred per cent

Each number to the right of the point is read separately e.g.

3.5% three point five per cent
10.3 ten point three
20.95 twenty point nine five

1. 3 one point three recurring

0.002 point zero zero two, point oh oh two, zero point zero zero two
3.1416 three point one four one six

Fractions
7
seven eighths

a third or one third

or one over three

or seven over eight

one over a hundred and sixty seven

13

nine thirteenths or nine over thirteen

167
Fractions together with an integer are read as follows:
1 1 2 is "one and a half"
6

is "six and a quarter"

is "seven and five eighths

Squares, roots and ratios

32 = 9

three squared equals nine

33

three cubed

312

three to the power of twelve

10 -5

ten to the minus five

64 = 8 the square root of sixty-four is (or equals) eight

3

64 = 4 the cube root of sixty-four is (or equals) four

j=

j equals the square root of minus one

3:4:6:8

three is to four as six is to eight

4:12

four is to twelve, a ratio of four to twelve

one over n

Here are the four basic arithmetic operations:

+ addition

multiplication

- substraction

division

Notice how these formulae would be read aloud:

2x +3y z =

3z
4x

6 7 = 42

Two x plus three y minus

Three

z equals three z divided by four x . Or

z over four x .

Six times seven is forty-two or six multiplied by seven is forty-two

Six sevens are forty-two.

It is also important to be able to talk about shapes. Note the names of the shapes below:

Two Dimensions: A flat plane or shape is two-dimensional. Its two dimensions are length and width.
Polygons, such as squares and rectangles, are examples of two-dimensional objects. Two-dimensional objects
can be rotated in a plane.

square
triangle
circle
pentagon
octagon
rectangle
oval

Three Dimensions: The objects around you the ones you

can pick up, touch, and move around are three-dimensional. These
shapes have a third dimension: depth.
Cubes, prisms, pyramids, spheres, cones, and cylinders are all
examples of three-dimensional objects. Three-dimensional objects
can be rotated in space.

Mathematical Symbols
.

point

is a subset of

plus, positive

combination (sets), union

minus, negative

intersection (sets)

is proportional to

--- dashes

is perpendicular to

infinity

stroke, slash

[ ]

square brackets

equals

( )

round brackets

is approximately equal to

{ }

braces

times, multiplied by

<

is less than

integral

divided by

>

is more than

function

//

therefore
any number

the sum of
is parallel to
less than or equal to

Exercises

A. Numbers quiz.
1. Name the first four odd numbers. _____________________________________________
2. Name the first four even numbers. ____________________________________________
3. Name the first four prime numbers. ___________________________________________
4. Give an example of a decimal fraction. __________________________________________
5. Give an example of a vulgar fraction. ___________________________________________
6. How do you read this formula and what does it represent: e= mc2 ? _____________________
_______________________________________________________________________
7. How do you read this and what does it represent: 2 r ?_____________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
B. Listen and circle ONLY the numbers you hear.
77

376

72

17

70

54

49

13

33

908

189

22

450

98

23

C. Write the following in words rather than in figures or symbols.

1. The majority of the people from Equatorial Guinea did not have access to decent water and 5% of the population
owned 80% of the countrys wealth in 2005.___________________________________________________
2. 0 C = 32 F____________________________________________________________________________
3. 62.3% of adults have false teeth.___________________________________________________________
4.

x 42 = 14

_____________________________________________________________

5. 2,769,425 people live here.________________________________________________________

6. 2.356 _______________________________________________________________________
D. Read the names of the figures on the previous page. What is the adjective relating to each of those
shapes? Use a dictionary if necessary.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
E.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Read the following records aloud.

Oxygen accounts for 46.6 % of the earths crust.
The nearest star to the earth is Proxima Centauri. It is 33,923,310,000,000 km from earth.
The highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela with a drop of 979m.
The top coffee-drinking country in the world is Finland where 1,892 cups a year are consumed per head of the
population.
5. The CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario is the world's tallest freestanding structure on land at 553.33 m (1,815 ft).
6. The most common item of lost property on London transport is the umbrella. 23,250 umbrellas were handed in to
London transport lost property offices in 1998/9.
7. There are 17 microstates of less than 200 square miles in area. The smallest is the Vatican City with an area of
0.4 sq km.
F. Draw the following figures
1. A right-angled triangle with two equal sides of about two centimetres in length. Draw a small circle at the centre
of the triangle and then draw lines from the centre of the circle to each of the angles of the triangle.
2. A rectangle with diagonal lines joining opposite angles.
3. An octagon with equal sides. Draw an oval in the middle of the octagon.
4. A three-dimensional rectangular shape of roughly 6 cm by 3 cm by 2 cm.
G. Listen and write down the numbers in the sentences.
1. He lives at ___________ Greene Street.
2. Pat is celebrating his birthday next week. He'll be ___________ years old.
3. That's ___________ please.
4. My telephone number is ___________.
5. She arrives at ___________ o'clock.
6. OK, I'll see you on Tuesday, March ___________.
7. My computer only cost ___________!
8. He's worked there for ___________ years.
9. He needs ___________ new workers.
10. She learned the program in ___________ days!