UNIT 3 : NUMBER AND MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS

SECTION I: NUMBERS

CARDINALS ORDINALS
0 nought, etc
1 One 1st First
2 Two 2nd Second
3 three 3rd Third
4 four 4* Fourth
5 five 5* Fifth
6 six 6* Sixth
7 seven 7th Seventh
8 eight 8th Eighth
9 nine 9* th Ninth
10 ten 10 Tenth
11 eleven 11th Eleventh
12 twelve 12th Twelfth
13 thirteen 13* Thirteenth
14 fourteen 14* Fourteenth
15 fifteen 15* Fifteenth
16 sixteen 16th Sixteenth
17 seventeen 17th Seventeenth
18 eighteen 18* Eighteenth
19 nineteen 19* Nineteenth
20 twenty 20* Twentieth
21 twenty-one, etc 21st Twenty-first, etc
30 thirty 30* Thirtieth
40 forty 40th Fortieth
50 sixty 50* Fiftieth
60 sixty 60th Sixtieth
70 seventy 70* Seventieth
80 eighty 80th Eightieth
90 ninety 90* Ninetieth
100 one hundred 100* (one) hundredth
101 one hundred and one. 101st (one) hundred and
200 two hundred 200* Two hundredth
1.000 one thousand 1.000* (one) thousandth
100,000 one hundred thousand 100.000th (one) hundred
1.000.00 one million 1.000,000 (one) millionth

Nought (AmE) naught) /not/ occurs chiefly as the name of the numeral 0. and is
replaced, in general use. by the negative determiner no or the pronoun none:
There were no survivors from the air disaster
None of the passengers or crew survived.
Zero I /zieroü / is used for 0 especially in mathematics and for temperature:
O/ou/ is used for example in telephone numbers:
Dial 7050 / seven ou faiv ou / and ask for extension 90 / nain ou /
Nil I nil / or nothing is used for example in football:
Brazil won 4-0 (four nil / (to) nothing).
Love/lav/ is used in tennis, squash, etc:
Borg leads by 30-0 (thirty love)
One or a must be used with 100. 1,000 and 1,000,000 when they are written with
letters or spoken:
One/a hundred (passengers) Similarly:

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 One/a thousand (pounds) one / a hundred and one (-101) etc.
One/a million (French francs)
Hundred, thousand and million have the singular form following both singular and
plural numbers or quantifiers:
Two hundred (times)
Three thousand (casualties)
Several million (dollars)
Note As a head, million sometimes has a plural form:
The population of New Zealand is now three million(s). (but: three
million five thousand).
But all three have the -s plural when they denote an indefinite number:
I've told him so hundreds of times.
There were thousands of spectators at the demonstration.
Millions of people die every year from starvation.
The plural forties denotes an age or a period between 40 and 49; similarly with
sixties, etc:
She was a good-looking woman in her forties.
The book was published in the seventies/in the 70s/in the 1970s.

Fractions and decimals

Fractions are read out in full as follows:
½ (a) half The stayed (for) (half an hour,
a half hour,
¼ a quarter They stayed (for) a quarter of an hour
1/10 a/one tenth a tenth of the population
3/4 three quarters three quarters of an hour
11/2 one and a half [one and a half hours
{ an hour and a half
3 1/5 three and one fifth three and one fifth inches

Decimals are read out in full as follows:

2.5 two point five
3.14 three point one four

Times and dates

Times of the clock are read out in full as follows:
at 5 at 5 (o 'clock)
at 5.15 at five fifteen, at a quarter past five, at a quarter after five (AmE) at
5.30 at five thirty, at half past five

at 5.45 at five forty-five, at a quarter to six. at a quarter of six (AmE) at

5.50 at five fifty, at ten (minutes) to six
at 6.10 at ten (minutes) past six. at ten minutes after six (AmE); at six ten can be used
when one is referring .e.g. to a timetable

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Dates are written and read out as follows:
(written) He died on 5 May 1974 or May 5th 1974.
(spoken) He died on the fifth of May, nineteen seventy four or May the fifth nineteen
seventy four.
Exercise 1: Write these numbers in words

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1. 3 11. 10.874
2. 14 12. 12.00
3. 40 13. 100.302
4. 96 14. 1.000.001
5. 105 15. 82.985
6. 235 16. 153.87
7. 965 17. 73.5
8. 1.053 18. 90.005
9. 1.053 19. 19.33
10. 2.276 20. 80.751

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Exercise 2 : Write down ten numbers consisting of at least six digits, then
write them in words.

Exercise 3 : In 1904 the Wright brothers made many flights. Make statements
about these flights. Use the notes and the example to help you.

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17.01.01/2nd/90s/755m
They flew their aeroplane on the 17th January. 1904. They made several flights and the
second lasted nearly ninety seconds and covered about seven hundred and fifty
metres.

a) I8.01.04/3rd/115s/1100m
b) 25.02.04/1st/4min/2.3 km
c) 03.03.04/2nd/5min7s/2.8 km
d) 0.5.04.04/4th/10min/4.1 km
e) 09.05.04/lst/l2min/4.8 km
f) 10.05.04/2nd/l7/5.2 km

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SECTION II : DIMENSIONS

Use these patterns to ask and answer questions about dimensions:

How high is …….. ? It is ………………… high.

wide wide.
long long.
deep deep.
thick thick.

What is the height of …..? The height of … is …

width width
length length
depth depth
thickness thickness
It has a height of …
width
length
depth
thickness
SI units of Measurement

Many different systems of measurement are still used. However, most scientists now
use the SI (Systeme International) system.

The SI system has seven basic units. Here are the five most common units.

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Quantity and Symbol Basic SI Unit SI Abbreviation

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 length (i) metre M
mass (m) kilogram Kg
time (t) second S
electric current (i) ampere A
temperature (t) kelvin K*

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* The Kelvin scale and the Celsius scale are related. The Kelvin temperature equals
the Celsius temperature plus 273.16° (0°C = 273.16°K : 100°C = 373.16°K. etc).

Common derived SI Units

Quantity and Symbol SI Abbreviation Name and Symbol

Area (A or S) M2
Volume (V) M3
Density (p) Kg m°
Velocity (u or v) Ms"1
Acceleration (a) Ms"2
Frequency (v or f) s"1 Hertz (Hz)
Force(F) Kg m s"2 Newton (N)
Pressure (p) Kg m"1 s"2 or N m*2 Pascal (Pa)
Energy (E) Kg m s Joule (J)
Power (P) Kg m" s* or J s"1 Watt (W)

Multiples of both base and derived units

Multiple or sub-multiple Prefix Symbol
10b Mega M
103 Kilo k
102 Hecto h
10"2 Centi c
10"3 Milli m
10"6 Micro H

Exercise 4 : Look at the example

How long is this runway?
It is 2 km long.
It has a length of 2 km

These two sentences have the same meaning

Describe these dimensions in the same way.
How long is this car? How long are these spanners? How high is this chimney?

How high are these pylons? How wide is this car? How wide are these pipes?

Now look at these examples

Materials do not always have a height.

The sometimes have a thickness
How thick is this glass?
It is 2 mm thick.
It has a thickness of 2 mm.
Describe these dimensions in the same way.
How thick is this wood?
How deep is this bucket?
How thick are these pipes? How deep is this well?
Exercise 5 : Study the description below

A is solid wooden block 5 cm high, 10 cm long, and 4cm wide.

There are three other ways of writing this description:

A is a solid wooden block which has a height of 5 cm, a length of 10 cm and a width
of 4 cm.
A is a solid wooden block having a height of 5 cm, a length of 10 cm and a width of 4
cm.
A is a solid wooden block of height 5 cm, length 10 cm and width 4 cm.

Now find some objects and describe their dimensions.

Exercise 6: Write the descriptions of these flat three-dimensional objects. Number 1

has been done for you.

1 Object A is a square plate which has a

length of 5 cm and a thickness of 0.1 cm.

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4

Exercise 7 : Write these measurements in words

1. 6.5 g 7. 4 cm
2. 15.6 kg 8. 3.6 cm3
3. 2.6V 9. 5.05 g/cm3
4. 13A 10. 1.8m2
5. 25.5°C 11. 0.3kg/m3
6. 100m 12. 55 Km/h
Exercise 8: Look are rhus diagram and answer the questions.

1. Is the height of the aeroplane 10.4 m?

2. Is the height of the aerial 1.96 m?
3. Is the diameter of the propeller 15.4 m?
4. Is the length of the exhaust 0.08 m?
5. What is the diameter of the large wheels?
6. What is the diameter of the small wheel?
7. What is the length of the aeroplane?
8. Is the number of the aeroplane five hundred and forty?
SECTION III : MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS AND EQUATION

Exercise 9 : Write the meaning of these symbols Number 1 and

10 have been done for you

Symbol Example Meaning in full

1 . 5.143 Five point one four three
2 + a+b
3 - a-b
4 ± ±3 cm
5 = Rtot = R1 +R2
6 ≈ I ≈ 3A
7 x a x b
8 (no sign) V = IR
9 : 1
R
10 : 11 : 2 Eleven two twelve
11 % 10 %
12 √ √9
13 °C 45°C
14 < <3A
15 > > 10 dB
16 < <25mA
Exercise 10 : Write down some formulae and equation you have learned from
other subjects and rewrite them in words.

SECTION IV : READING COMPREHENSION

MATHEMATICAL EQUATION
Mathematical equations contain variables. If there are only two variables, it is
possible to show their relationship on a graph.

The simplest equation is y = x. The graph of y = x is a straight line. In this equation,

the values of x and y always remain equal. (If x = 1. then y = 1; if x = -3. then y = -3.
etc). This graph line (line a) passes through the origin of the graph.

Sometimes the equation of a straight line contains a constant. For example, in the
equation y = x + 3. x and y are the two variables and 3 is the constant. If an equation
contains a constant then the graph line does not pass through the origin. Look at lines
b and c. If the constant is positive, then the line cuts the y axis above the origin. It
the constant is negative, then the line cuts the y axis below the origin.

Lines a, b and c all have the same gradient. That is to say they all slope at the same
angle to the x axis. Now look at lines d and e. Line d has a higher gradient and line e
has a lower gradient. This is because the coefficients of x are different in these
equations. In equations a. b and c, x has a coefficient of 1. That is why the graph
lines all have the same gradient. However, in equation d the coefficient of x is 2 and
in equation e the coefficient is Vi. If the coefficient of x is high, the gradient is high.
Similarly, if the coefficient is low. the gradient is low.

These five lines are all straight. However, if a graph equation contains x 2. xJ, etc., the
graph becomes curved.

Because equation f contains x\ the graph line is curved. Line f does not pass below
the origin because the values of y never become negative. A squared number never
has a negative value. (If x = -2, x~ = 4; if x = -3. x = 9. etc). Similarly, equation h
contains x4 and so the v values never become negative. (If x = -2. x 4 = 16; if x = -3. x
= 8 1 etc). However, equation g contains x J. and so it gives both positive and
negative values for y. (If x = 2. y = 8; if x = -2. y = -8 and so on). That is why the
graph line stretches above and below the origin.

Exercise 11 : Are these statements true or false? If they are false, write corrected
statements.

1. y = x (line a)
a. If x=10. y = 1 0
b. The graph line passes through the origin
c. The equation contains a constant

2. y = x + 3 (line b)
a. If x = 4. then y = 7
b. The graph line passes through the origin
c. The equation contains a negative constant
d. Lines a and b have the same gradient

3. y = x - 3 (line c)
a. If x = 2. then y = 0
b. The graph line cuts the y axis below the origin
c. The equation contains a negative constant
 d. The coefficient of x is 2

4. y = 2x + 6 (line d)
a. If x = 0. then y = 6
b. The graph line has the highest gradient
c. The equation contains the constant 2

5. y = V4 x - 2 (line e)
a. If x = 4. y = -2
b. Line e has a lower gradient because the coefficient of x is low
c. The line cuts the y axis above the origin
d. The equation contains the constan1/2.

6. y = x2. y x\y x4 (line f. g. h)

a. In all three graphs, if x l,y = 1
b. The three graph lines are all curved.
c. All three lines pass through the origin
d. The lines all stretch above and below the origin
e. X2. x3 and x4 never have negative values.