Some people believe that children shouldn’t be allowed to use calculators in mathematics and science classes in schools – I disagree. Scientists use calculators for many of the routine and tedious calculations that they frequently have to perform. So, if schools are teaching children how to do science, they should teach them to use calculators… Continue reading 18.4 Calculators in schools

Before you read this, I suggest you read post 18.2. If x, y and z are numbers related by x = yz we say that z is the logarithm of x to the base y. This is a lot of words to explain a simple idea that is usually written x = logyz   or x… Continue reading 18.3 Logarithms

We have met examples of this topic in several previous posts, especially post 16.7. Now I want to write about it in more detail. If we want to write a number a multiplied by itself 5 times, we could write a × a × a × a × a but this is very tedious –… Continue reading 18.2 Powers of numbers

Before you read this post, I suggest you read posts 17.49 and 17.50. Acidity and alkalinity are important for many biological processes. Azaleas will only grow well in acid soils. Saliva is alkaline but your stomach contents are acid. Healthy urine is acidic but infected urine can be alkaline. The previous paragraph raises several questions… Continue reading 18.1 pH