Science4U: Practical Math for Practical Science

By Richard Ignace

Helpful for college, high school, and homeschooled students, this book is for those who struggle with math in science. Scientific notation, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and vector concepts are addressed as used in the sciences, with examples and exercises. Readers will gain proficiency with using math as the language of science.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Ignace
• Release date: Aug 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458011237

Richard Ignace

Born in Fort Wayne, IN, I have been married since 1988. My wife and I have six wonderful children. We have lived in Indiana (of course), Wisconsin, Scotland, and Iowa, and we currently reside in Tennessee. I am a professor of astrophysics, teaching students and doing research. Stars have been the main focus of my studies, but I am interested in most areas of astrophysics, including microlensing and exoplanets. Thank you for checking out my book!

Book preview

Science4U: Practical Math for Practical Science

Helpful for college, high school, and homeschooled students, this book is especially for those who struggle with math in science. Scientific notation, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and vector concepts are addressed as commonly used in the physical sciences, accompanied with examples and exercises. Readers will gain proficiency with using math as the language of science and will master the shorthand script of math for symbolizing how things go like.

IMPORTANT: Unfortunately, conversion of the .doc to various formats appears to render the Greek symbol theta to the letter q when using the equation editor. Not all equations display properly in html and javascript, but do display properly in pdf.

Science4U: Practical Math for Practical Science

Richard Ignace

Smashwords Edition

Copyrighted 2010 Richard Ignace

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

CONTENTS

About the Author

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Math Begins with Attitude

What Is Four?

The Art of Algebra

The Elements of Practical Math

– Scientific Notation

– Units

– Linear Relationships

– Geometry

– Trigonometry

– Vectors

Exercises

Solutions

Contact Me

CREDITS

Figures in this book are the original work of the author. They were produced with supermongo (www.supermongo.net).

The cover uses an image from the public domain, with text added by the author. Credit belongs to Petr Kratochvil. The image was obtained at www.public-domain-image.com/miscellaneous/slides/wind-turbine-in-lake-district.html.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Ignace is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at East Tennessee State University. Known by his nickname of Rico, he is an astrophysicist with a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin and also a Masters in physics. Rico has been teaching astronomy and physics at the university level since 1999 to well over 1,000 students. He has also taught a high school level physics course to a group of homeschoolers and has occasionally taught MCAT physics for the Kaplan program.

Rico has two primary occupations.

First, married since 1988, Rico’s wife, Teresa, and six children, Caleb, Joshua, Joseph, Abigail, Simeon, and Lucas, keep life in a constant state of excitement and motion.

Second, Rico is an active researcher of stellar astrophysics, generally in the area of theoretical modeling, but also as an observer involving several of NASA’s orbiting telescopes, such as Chandra, Spitzer, and others, and sometimes ground-based telescopes. His interests lie mainly in trying to understand stellar winds, which are outflows of gas from stellar atmospheres into space, and he has won a number of grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation in support of his research activities. Rico also dabbles in a number of other topics, such as exoplanets, gravitational lensing, and supernovae.

In addition, Rico likes to play soccer when he gets the rare opportunity.

Rico's published books include:

Hardcopy – 2002, Understanding the Universe, by Raman Prinja and Richard Ignace

Hardcopy – 2005,