Math Coursework

Math coursework can be very interesting depending on the topic you choose. There are so many interesting facts in mathematics that you will enjoy while working in this subject. The numerals, now in everyday use are called Arabic numerals, because it was from the Arabs that these numerals spread to Europe. The concept of zero and the digital system are India’s contributions to the science of numerals. The Arabs adopted the Indian system. The Europeans got it from the Arabs.

Roman numerals are those used by the Romans. They are letters converted into numbers like 1=I, 5=V, 10=X etc. They do not follow the digital system of Arab numerals. The general rules of the Roman numerals are the following: 1) Repeating a letter repeats its value: XX=10+10=20 (2) A letter placed after one of greater value adds thereto: VI=5+1=6 (3) A letter placed before another of greater value subtracts there from: IV=5-1=4 (4) A dash over a numeral multiplies its values by thousand.

Some high Arabic numerals cause a lot of confusion when used as words. The classic instance is billion which in US is equal to a thousand million and in Britain to a million million.

Mathematicians often say that all numbers have some interesting properties. Here are some of the interesting properties:

1)      Zero was not originally recognized as a number. The first known reference to zero was in India around AD 900. It was primarily used to hold a place in a number (so that 101 and 11 could be told apart). It is the only number that can’t be used as a divisor.

2)      The Golden Ratio was recognized by the Greeks as producing self similar divisions of a line segment or self similar triangles. It is also the only number from which you can obtain the reciprocal by subtracting 1. It is also the limiting ratio of adjacent terms in the Fibonacci series.

3)      Five is interesting in so many ways that some have called it the most interesting number of them all. There are 5 platonic solids. Equations with exponents of 5 or greater cannot always be solved by algebraic means. According to the Banach Tarski theorem, a sphere can be disassembled into 5 pieces and be reassembled as a different size( with no overlaps or holes)

4)      The smallest perfect number is 6. It is also the smallest number whose cube is itself the sum of three cubes.

5)      Nine is interesting in the decimal system, although it would be much less interesting in some other method of writing numbers.

6)      Seventeen is the only number that is the sum of four consecutive prime numbers: 17=2+3+5+7 and is the number of possible different ways to cover a plane with symmetric figures.

7)      39 is the smallest whole number for which mathematicians have not found any interesting property.

8)      If some mathematical relation is such that it alternates between critical values, hovering on the brink of catastrophe, the ratio of the successive critical values will get closer and closer to feigenbaum’s number, which is approximately 4.66920160910299097.