ABSTRACT

Don’t let your mathematical skills fail you! In Engineering, Construction, and Science examinations, marks are often lost through carelessness or from not properly understanding the mathematics involved. When there are only a few marks on offer for a part of a question, there may be full marks for a right answer and none for a wrong one, regardless of the thought that went into the answer.

If you want to avoid losing these marks by improving the clarity both of your mathematical work and your mathematical understanding, then Essential Maths for Engineering and Construction is the book for you.We all make mistakes; who doesn’t? But mistakes can be avoided when we understand why we make them. Taking mistakes commonly made by undergraduate students as its entry point, this book not only looks at how you can prevent mistakes, but also provides a primer for the fundamental mathematical skills required for your degree discipline.

Whether you struggle with different types of interest rates, geometry, statistics, calculus, or any of the other mathematical areas vital to your degree, this book will guide you around the pitfalls.

part I|2 pages

Finding the pitfalls

chapter 1|7 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|7 pages

Find an independent check

part II|2 pages

Misleading with mathematics

chapter 3|19 pages

When ink meets paper

chapter 4|34 pages

Juggling with numbers

chapter 5|17 pages

False assumptions and false logic

chapter 6|26 pages

Lies, damned lies and statistics

part III|2 pages

Some mistakes that we make

chapter 7|13 pages

Errors in arithmetic

chapter 8|55 pages

Errors in algebra

chapter 9|16 pages

Errors in trigonometry

chapter 10|6 pages

Calculator errors

chapter 11|9 pages

Bad notation

chapter 12|28 pages

Errors in calculus

chapter 13|13 pages

Test yourself