Fear of Maths?
I found a fascinating Web site about the fear of maths and I have borrowed the following excerpt from there:
The History of Nothing
Imagine if there were no number “zero”. How would you know whether “23″ meant “23″ or “203″ or “230″? Or even “2030000″? The number and the character that we know as zero hasn’t been around forever. The Babylonians, in the 2nd century BC, used to use a pair of “wedges” to indicate an empty space, so to write “203″ they would use 
.
Before that, they didn’t have any symbol to represent “zero”, “empty” or “nothing”. Many other cultures had no symbol at all.
Trick No. 1 – Multiplying with Zeros
Numbers ending in zeros are just multiples of ten (or one hundred, or one thousand…) To multiply by a number ending in zeros, just ignore the zeros, do your multiplication, then add the zeros back on!
Read more…
The Silver Abacus
I don’t actually use an abacus to teach maths; I barely know how to use one myself, although I’ve said for ages that I’d like to learn. The slogan on this Web site: “Maths the Way Nature Intended” is just a bit of fun. I have no idea where the idea for that tag line came from, but when it came to me, I liked it, so I included it for a giggle.
I do have a silver abacus. It was a gift from my sister on receiving my bachelor’s degree. It’s tiny though, and I wear it as a pendant. Ask me to see it! I almost never take it off…
New Year, New You!
The start of a new year brings the dreamers out in all of us. This year, put your money where your mouth is, and make sure your maths skills are up to speed. Often an hour or two is all that stands between success and failure. Get help early in the term and watch your success climb!