Zegarelli - Basic Math and Pre-Algebra For Dummies

Once upon a time, you loved numbers. This isnt the first line of a fairy tale. Once upon a time, you really did love numbers. Remember?

Maybe you were 3 years old and your grandparents were visiting. You sat next to them on the couch and recited the numbers from 1 to 10. Grandma and Grandpa were proud of you and be honest you were proud of yourself, too. Or maybe you were 5 and discovering how to write numbers, trying hard not to print your 6 and 7 backward.

Learning was fun. Numbers were fun. So what happened? Maybe the trouble started with long division. Or sorting out how to change fractions to decimals. Could it have been figuring out how to add 8 percent sales tax to the cost of a purchase? Reading a graph? Converting miles to kilometers? Trying to find that most dreaded value of x? Wherever it started, you began to suspect that math didnt like you and you didnt like math very much, either.

Why do people often enter preschool excited about learning how to count and leave high school as young adults convinced that they cant do math? The answer to this question would probably take 20 books this size, but solving the problem can begin right here.

I humbly ask you to put aside any doubts. Remember, just for a moment, an innocent time a time before math-inspired panic attacks or, at best, induced irresistible drowsiness. In this book, I take you from an un-derstanding of the basics to the place where youre ready to enter any algebra class and succeed.

Somewhere along the road from counting to algebra, most people experience the Great Math Breakdown. This feels something like when your car begins smoking and sputtering on a 110F highway somewhere between Noplace and Not Much Else.

Please consider this book your personal roadside helper, and think of me as your friendly math mechanic (only much cheaper!). Stranded on the interstate, you may feel frustrated by circumstances and betrayed by your vehicle, but for the guy holding the toolbox, its all in a days work. The tools for fixing the problem are in this book.

Not only does this book help you with the basics of math, but it also helps you get past any aversion you may feel toward math in general. Ive broken down the concepts into easy-to-understand sections. And because Basic Math & Pre-Algebra For Dummies is a reference book, you dont have to read the chapters or sections in order you can look over only what you need. So feel free to jump around. Whenever I cover a topic that requires information from earlier in the book, I refer you to that section or chapter, in case you want to refresh yourself on the basics.

Here are two pieces of advice I give all the time remember them as you work your way through the concepts in this book:

• Take frequent breaks. Every 20 to 30 minutes, stand up and push in your chair. Then feed the cat, do the dishes, take a walk, juggle tennis balls, try on last years Halloween costume do something to distract yourself for a few minutes. Youll come back to your books more productive than if you just sat there hour after hour with your eyes glazing over.
• After youve read through an example and think you understand it, copy the problem, close the book, and try to work it through. If you get stuck, steal a quick look but later, try that same example again to see whether you can get through it without opening the book. (Remember that, on any tests youre preparing for, peeking is probably not allowed!)

Although every author secretly (or not-so-secretly) believes that each word he pens is pure gold, you dont have to read every word in this book unless you really want to. Feel free to skip over sidebars (those shaded gray boxes) where I go off on a tangent unless you find tangents interesting, of course. Paragraphs labeled with the Technical Stuff icon are also nonessential.

If youre planning to read this book, you likely fall into one of these categories:

• A student who wants a solid understanding of the basics of math for a class or test youre taking
• An adult who wants to improve skills in arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, weights and measures, geometry, algebra, and so on for when you have to use math in the real world
• Someone who wants a refresher so you can help another person understand math

My only assumption about your skill level is that you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. So to find out whether youre ready for this book, take this simple test:

• 5 + 6 =___
• 10 7 =___
• 3 5 =___
• 20 4 =___

If you can answer these four questions, youre ready to begin.

Throughout the book, I use four icons to highlight whats hot and whats not: