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TAKE A NUMBER by

TAKE A NUMBER

By

Pub Date: June 15th, 1961
Publisher: McGraw-Hill-Whittlesey

Throughout history, men have developed number systems to fulfill their everyday needs. The cavemen undoubtedly understood the 1 to 1 correspondence by a simple matching device. The Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans and Indians all contributed something to mathematics from the invention of number symbols, number bases, counting systems, the zero, to the discovery of place value by way of the abacus. In conversational writing suitable for young children and supporting gay illustrations to match, such overtly complicated concepts as the binary system, the development of exponents, the meaning of infinite, the uses of prime, perfect, and negative numbers and a whole range of checking ideas as well as shortcuts in multiplication and division are succinctly given. Difficult to place in a specific age category due to the broad scope of curriculum topics, this could probably best be used as enrichment material for the mathematically inclined third and fourth grader who will benefit from a deeper understand of matters already learned but who is also capable of utilizing unlearned concepts as a brief introduction to what lies ahead.