Title: Reading Maths in English
1Reading Mathsin English
Functions those strange machines
Unit 3 ACTIVITY 1
21st Part GENERAL DIFFERENCES
3Mathematical notation aspires to be universal.
But there are some differences between Catalans
and English-spoken people when writing
Mathematics.
They are not important differences (it is a
question of style, we can say). But it is
interesting to know them.
41. Writing numbers The English seven is
like the one on the computers or the
calculator
It cant be confused with a one, because the
English one is
Catalan seventeen English seventeen
52. Decimal point To separate the whole part
from the decimal part of a number, the British
people use a point, not a comma
725 seven point twenty-five or
seven point two five
It is not a bad solution because, in this way,
they dont confuse the decimals points with the
commas, working with ordinate pairs (x, y)
Catalan notation British notation P (
2,3 , 5,8 ) P (23, 58)
63. Multiplication symbol As they cant use
the point to express product, the British always
use an oblique cross
725 seven times twenty-five
They use this symbol, even, working in Algebra
Catalan expressions British
expressions 7a, 2ab 7a, 7ab
74. Using variables It is even more
complicated when we are working with equations,
as the product symbol can be confused with the
unknown number ecs (variable). To solve this
problem, they use a kind of italics
Catalan expressions British
expressions 4x, -3x2 4x, -3x2
85. Equality symbol As we do, the British
people use the equality symbol in different
situations. But they distinguish well Doing
calculus 782-5 716-5 (always new line)
23-5 18 Solving
equations 5x-73x9
5x-3x97 2x16 (always new line,
and symbol ) x8
96. Division symbol English-spoken people
dont understand the colon () as the symbol of
the division. They use The colon is
only used to express ratio
123 twelve divided by 3
23 2 to 3 the ratio of girls to
pupils is 2 to 3
102nd Part READING ARITHMETICS
11Addition (summation) 235 2 plus 3 equals
5 2 and 3 is 5 2 and 3 add up to make
5 the sum of 2 and 3 is 5 addends/
sum/result summands/ plus sign
terms
12Subtraction 7-43 7 minus 4 equals 3 7
take-away 4 leaves 3 4 from 7 is 3
minuend difference/result subtrahend
minus sign (terms) -4 minus 4 or
negative 4
13Product (multiplication) 3515 3 times 5 is
15 3 multiplied by 5 is 15 3 by 5
equals 15 multiplicands/
product/result factors multiplication
sign 2510 twice five is ten
14Division 623 6 divided by 2 is 3 6 over 2
equals 3 dividend quotient/result
divisor division sign
Division algorithm 3272 quotient divisor
dividend remainder
15Exponentiation 3 9 3 squared is 9 3 27 3
cubed equals 27 3 81 3 raised to 4 is equal
to 81 3 raised to the 4th power is 81
3 raised to the power of 4 is 81 base
exponent/power/index
2
3
4
16Roots the square root of 9 is 3 the
cubed root of 27 is 3 the 4th root of 81
is 3 radicand index
radical symbol
173rd Part READING GEOMETRY
18a point
19a straight line
20a curved line
21parallel straight lines
intersecting straight lines
perpendicular lines
90º
22some geometric figures - perimeter - area
23triangle
24quadrilateral
25 NOW YOU INVESTIGATE What is the name of
the geometric figures, and the different types,
in English? (prepare a PowerPoint)