The Handy Math Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series)

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 by Pythagoras, Archimedes, Newton, and other mathematicians, this engaging resource addresses more than 1,000 questions related to mathematics. Organized into chapters that cluster similar topics in an easily accessible format, this reference provides clear and concise explanations about the fundamentals of algebra, calculus, geometry, trigonometry, and other branches of mathematics. It contains the latest mathematical discoveries, including newly uncovered historical documents and updates on how science continues to use math to make cutting-edge innovations in DNA sequencing, superstring theory, robotics, and computers. With fun math facts and illuminating figures, The Handy Math Answer Book explores the uses of math in everyday life. Math can be daunting, but a little understanding can bring the joy of understanding our world a little bit better. What are a googol and a googolplex? What are some of the basic "building blocks" of geometry? What is a percent? What are some of the mathematics behind global warming? How does the adult brain process fractions? What is a computer"app"?