Tutoring math, you often get asked about sets of numbers.  Let’s sort out what belongs where. We’ll make this story as short as possible: Naturals (N):  {1,2,3,4…..}  These might be referred to as counting numbers. Wholes (W):  {0,1,2,3,4…..}  These include all the naturals, plus zero. Integers (Z):  {….-3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3….}  …

Number Sets: Naturals, Wholes, Integers, etc Read more »

Tutoring math, the FOIL method is used daily.  We’ll explain it here. In math, the distributive property is used constantly.  An illustration: 3(5x-7)=15x-21 To see what’s really happening here, look to the following: We see that we take the outer number (in this case, …

Multiplying two binomials: the FOIL method Read more »

When you tutor math, decimal coefficients surface sometimes – especially in word problems.  We’ll sort out a simple scenario. Recently, someone asked me a question very similar to 206.5(0.7x) + 112x = 4000.5 Here’s what to do: 1)  multiply the 206.5 by …

Algebra: solving equations with decimal coefficients Read more »