Essential maths for geoscientists: an introduction

Maths for Geoscientists is an accessible, student-friendly introduction to the essential mathematics required by those students taking degree courses within the Geosciences. Clearly structured throughout, this book carefully guides the student step by step through the mathematics they will encounter and will provide numerous applied examples throughout to enhance students understanding and to place each technique into context. Opening with a chapter explaining the need for studying mathematics within geosciences the book then moves on to cover algebra, equations, solutions, logarithms and ex.

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Essential Maths for Geoscientists; Contents; Preface; 1 How Do You Know that Global Warming Is Not a Hoax?; The Earth system: how do we know what we know?; 2 Preamble; 2.1 The scientific method: pushing back the frontiers of ignorance; 2.2 Subscript and superscripts; 2.3 Scientific number format; 2.4 Significant figures and rounding numbers; 2.5 Units and dimensions; Unit conversion; 2.6 Symbols and numbers; 2.7 Mean, median and variance: commonly encountered statistics; 2.8 Guesstimation; 2.9 Exercises; 3 Algebra; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Evaluating algebraic equations.

3.2.1 Preamble: symbols and numbers3.2.2 Powers, roots and bases; 3.3 Simplifying algebraic equations; Removing brackets; 3.4 Factorization; 3.4.1 Factorizing quadratic equations; 3.5 Transposing formulae; 3.6 Word problems; 3.7 Exercises; 4 Solving Equations; 4.1 Solving linear equations; 4.1.1 Graphically; 4.1.2 Analytically; 4.2 Solving simultaneous equations; 4.3 Solving quadratic equations; 4.3.1 Square roots; 4.3.2 Completing the square; 4.4 Exercises; 5 Logarithms and Exponentials; 5.1 Exponentials; 5.2 Logarithms; 5.2.1 Logarithm laws; 5.2.2 Solving exponential equations.

5.2.3 Power laws and scaling expone…