Yr 7 Accelerated Mathematics

Class Notes

Expressing Numbers
Part 1
 Year 7 Accelerated Math
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Last edited: 03-12-2014

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1. Significant Figures
You are already familiar with rounding. This is a quick revision of rounding to significant figures.

Significant figures are important to computer programming and mean to round numbers to figures which
carry meaning.

Consider 0.008 and 0.007; what is the difference between the two?

The leading zeroes only give an approximation of how small the values are, the 7 and 8 themselves tells you
exactly how small the value are. Therefore in both numbers only the 7 and 8 are significant hence
why both have one significant number.

2. Rounding to Significant Figures

Knowing the following rules and how to round to significant figures is sufficient.

❖ All non-zero digits are considered significant.

❖ Zeroes appearing anywhere between two non-zero digits are significant.

❖ Leading zeroes are not significant.

❖ Trailing zeroes in a number containing a decimal point are significant.

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Example

Round off these numbers to the number of significant figures indicated.

(a) 49.387 (4 s.f.)

(b) 0.00645 (2 s.f.)

Exercise

1. Round off the following to the number of ​significant figures ​indicated in brackets.

(a) 4.658 (2 s.f.)

(b) 145.6 (3 s.f.)

(c) 2.076 (3 s.f.)

(d) 0.00199 (2 s.f.)

(e) 0.0834 (2 s.f.)

(f) 10.056 (3 s.f.)

A question to think about

1. How many numbers are there on the real number line?

 
 
 
 

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3. Approximations and Signs

There are distinct signs in mathematics that you must be able to recognise.

Equivalent To

Very often the term equivalent to is used very loosely, it is also often confused with the term is equal
to.

X ≡Y

The above means X is equivalent to Y.

For example;

3A ≡ B when A = 3 and B = 9, as you can see the value is the same. However they are not necessarily
equal. 3 apples will never give you a banana no matter how you tried.

Approximately Equal To

Approximations are also valid in mathematics.

X ≈Y

The above means X is approximately equal to Y.

For example;

1.000004 ≈ 1

Approximations are often used when checking your answers and trigonometry.

Implies

X => Y

The above symbol indicates X implies Y is true.

For example;

A decimal is not a whole number. As 3.5 is a decimal, this implies 3.5 is not a whole number as well.

Therefore & Because

Reasoning is a staple skill in math. You will get lots and lots of proof questions. It is absolutely
essential you know you can use the following symbols to mean therefore and because.

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Therefore Because

4. Recurring Decimals into Fractions

Converting recurring decimals into fractions is probably one of the hardest non-calculator work you
can be asked to do apart from algebra.

The general rules to obey when converting recurring decimals into fractions is as follows.

The conventional way to write theses are with dots on top of the repeated number.

0.5555555 = 0.5˙

If the repeated numbers are in a pattern, then dots are placed between the pattern.

˙ ˙
0.5665566556655665 = 0.5665

Step 1

Find an expression for the recurring digits.

Step 2

Multiply by an additional 10

Step 3

Subtract the recurring expression

Step 4

Using algebra re-write as a fraction

Examples

1. 0.7˙

3. 0.085˙

2. 0.27˙
4. 0.956˙

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But what happens when there are repeated digits?

˙˙
5. 0.56

a)

8. ˙ ˙
0.4627842

˙˙
6. 0.00025

7. ˙ ˙
0.00525

Extension:
Consider the decimal 0.77777777……

This is essentially the same as:

0.7 + 0.07+0.007+0.0007+0.00007+…….

It can be said that this is a series, with a common ratio between every 2 terms, whereby, the formula
a
1−r can be used to figure out this sum very easily as well.

a − the f irst term

r − ratio between sucessive terms

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Homework

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