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Basic Math and Pre-algebra for Dummies - Mark Zegarelli
by bamamo
Being at an unemployed loose end, I am trying to fill my time with as productive activities as possible. Besides the two OU courses I've been taking a while, I decided it was time once and for all to battle those maths "demons" as the adverts will insist on calling them. Am I the only one who find the ads a tad ... creepy?
I wouldn't say I'm at all horrible at maths, but the more calculators are readily available on phones etc, the more I realise I can't do a thing without them. I was good enough to do my GCSE a year early and then promptly forgot absolutely everything, so that I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even know some primary school basics such as long division and multiplication. I wanted to take a certain OU course and after taking the test to see if I'm at the right level, turns out my maths let me down.
So after a little searching I downloaded an electronic version of this book, so I can't comment on the paper version. However having owned a couple of other For Dummies titles I can say though that they are usually spiral bound, which is handy, although not always printed particularly well on quality paper.
This book covers all your maths basics - ranging from simple addition and subtraction to graphs, working with fractions and decimals, word problems and geometry. It then moves onto algebra. It is arranged in such a way that you will use everything you have already learned by the time you get to the algebra section. Sometimes the text makes it seem as though algebra is a big scary thing looming in the distance, although for me this is the part of maths I've always found easiest, because it's so logical.
Each chapter takes on one subject and explains the process, then works out a problem, explaining each step. If it's a more confusing concept, there are often a couple more examples to make sure it hits home. If there is more than one way to do something, the easiest way is shown first, followed by any drawn-out techniques that maths teachers tend to favour.
The text itself is friendly and not at all patronising, as you might expect after being called a dummy on the cover! There are a few Americanisms, as you can tell by the title, but wherever something may have more than one name, it they are all listed. There are often examples in terms of objects rather than numbers, to help illustrate a point, such as the good old pieces of cake for fractions. There are also jokes, and each chapter is not too long and text-heavy. I find that simply by reading each chapter beginning to end, I have a concept straight in my head.
Here's the problem though - there is no practise. If you want to have a stab at using your new maths skills, you either need to shell out again for the workbook which goes alongside this title, or do as I did and find a maths worksheet online. I do wish some practise questions were incorporated, perhaps with some sort of a test at the end of the whole book, because when operations are brought up again in later chapters, I sometimes find I have forgotten already. As it teaches each concept so clearly, it's a real shame that there is no reinforcement to help lodge them into my head.
As the book is so easy to read through, I would recommend it for a revision tool if you just need to brush up a little. However if you're starting from scratch or have a lot of work to do on your maths, the trawling around to find questions to practise with is just annoying.
The price is also really high, I think, especially as the For Dummies titles I have owned don't tend to be especially well printed. The RRP is £13.99, with it being available at Amazon for £8.37 at present, the same price as the workbook. I just can't see a reason to pay this much, especially if you only need a few sections of the book.
If you're cheap like me, I'd have a look for a download, otherwise perhaps look for a more well-rounded package with lots of practise.
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Feel the Fear . . . and Do It Anyway - Susan Jeffers
by emmacam
I was, of course, skeptical about reading this book, as I would assume most people would be, it doesn't stand out from any other self help book on the shelf. Tere are many different from covers as the book has been released again and again as it been around for ages and done very well.
I read this book a couples of years back ... but I remember it very well and I think it will stick with me for a while. There is not a particular situation you can apply it to, it could be public speaking (or I used it for agoraphobia) so being able to assist in such a varied collection of problems it actually does very well. This is because it emphasizes the message that it is ok to be afraid.
As counselors and other methods will inform anyone trying to overcome something really stubborn, they will be told to go step but step and relax etc but this book is very uncomplicated and all very relevant.
One chapter divides your life into 9 boxes and helps you spread out your life (so your not putting all your focus on a husband or a job) and then if one aspect does not go your way, your not completely in the s**t as you can go just focus your attention elsewhere.
It uses and explains psychological methods such as the fight or flight method and explains the power of the subconscious mind.
The most important aspect which this book focuses on is accepting your fear and doing whatever it is anyway. So, to look around, know that your not the only one afraid and get on with and accept the fear instead of fighting it or running away.
This book is very empowering and inspirational. It shows you that you, yourself have the power to help yourself and assists you journey.
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Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship - George Dyson
by markos9
The year is 1957. The Nuclear Age is in full swing and the Space Race has just begun with the challenging launch of Sputnik 1 by the Russians. In the United States, the Ultra Top Secret project 'Orion' seeks to combine elements of both nuclear and space technology and eclipse the Russian achievement, proclaiming American superiority in ... space for ever.
This was the most ambitious space project ever conceived. Orion was to be a 4,000 tonne manned spaceship capable of travelling to Saturn and beyond. The power for the enormous thrust required to move such a large craft was, incredibly, nuclear bombs.
Imagine an egg shaped spaceship with a large plate attached to the rear. Hydrogen bombs were fired from the back of the ship which then detonated when at a suitable distance from the vessel. Thrust from the bombs was absorbed by the plate (with a huge amount of dampening built in to avoid turning the astronauts to paste), propelling the ship forward.
The team of scientists were led by bomb designer Theodore B. Taylor and included British physicist Freeman Dyson. This book is written by Dyson's son George. With access to hundreds of hours of recently declassified material, together with conversations with his father and interviews with the team, George Dyson is well placed to tell the story of the nuclear bomb powered Orion.
The author takes the reader from the start of the project; it's inception as an idea from physicist Stanislaw Ulam, through the minefield of official approval by government officials, on to the assembly of a brilliant group of scientists working with theoretical, untested physics.
This is a story of human ingenuity, of power politics at the height of the cold war, and of extreme physics. To combine these aspects in a tale worth reading is a challenge for an author, but Dyson has produced a readable book.
The author's style gives even the less interesting aspects of the project real interest and his quotes from conversations during the project make fascinating reading.
Amazingly, the scientists had no idea if Orion would even work. The author recounts that much of the worry arose from the pusher plate; would it simply evaporate under the impact of the debris from hundreds of hydrogen bombs at a temperature of 100,000 degrees centigrade?
What is perhaps most surprising about the Orion spaceship is that it was designed to launch from the surface of Earth. Two hundred hydrogen bombs would be exploded, in our atmosphere, before the ship escaped our planet's gravity. The fallout would have been extensive, but the author reminds us that this was in the days when atmospheric nuclear tests were everyday occurrences.
Much of the preliminary work on Orion was completed during the eight years the project was live and Dyson recounts some of the fascinating experiments that were completed. The author's humorous writing style surfaces in some of the tales he tells of his father, and in the wry way he describes some of the practices of the day (that would be impossible to even contemplate now).
He describes Taylor as the only man ever to have lit a cigarette with a nuclear bomb (Taylor used a mirror to concentrate the light from a nuclear explosion 12 miles away to light his cigarette)!
Obviously, Orion never got off the ground, but it was not because the physics behind it were unsound, rather the political climate that resulted in a ban on nuclear testing prevented any further development of nuclear powered spacecraft.
Despite the project's untimely demise, designs for Orion spaceships have continued to be proposed. Clearly, these should never be launched from Earth, but in the vastness of radiation filled space, fallout would not be an issue. Maybe one day, an Orion spaceship will take humans to the outer reaches of the solar system. If so, that future craft will owe its existence to a small group of men who dared to ask whether such a design was possible over fifty years ago.
Dyson has written a readable, fascinating, thought provoking book. Project Orion is a wonderful account of an attempt of humans to reach for the stars and an excellent tribute to his father, one of the most eminent scientists this country has ever produced.
The book is available from Amazon for £11.99.
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