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UNIVERSITT HANNOVER Papiere zu Fachsprachen ENGLISCH

Dermot McElholm

Numbers and Mathematical Expressions in English

Am Judenkirchhof 10 - 30167 Hannover - Tel.: 0511/762-4914

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USING NUMBERS
1.1 Numbers in English 1.1.1 Writing the numbers 1.1.2 The ordinal numbers 1.1.3 Fractions 1.2 DECIMALS 1.3 NUMBER SYSTEMS 1.4 PERCENTAGES AND UNITS 1.4.1 Percentages 1.4.2 Units

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MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS
2.1 Trigonometric functions 2.2 Derivatives and integrals 2.3 Exponential functions and logarithms

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Numbers and mathematics

NUMBERS & MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS

1 USING NUMBERS
1.1 Numbers in English
Let us look at various aspects of expressing numbers in English, starting with how to write the cardinal numbers. 1.1.1 Writing the numbers There are several easy rules for writing the cardinal numbers, as the following series show: twenty-one (21), thirty-three1 (33), ninety-five (95) a/one hundred and thirty-nine (139), two thousand, four hundred and seventy-two (2,472) two hundred and three (203), five thousand and ten (5,010) The tens and the ones are connected with a hyphen. Otherwise numbers are written separately. We write and between hundreds and tens, hundreds and ones, thousands and ones, in other words, between any higher units than tens and lower units which can either be tens or ones, but not between thousands and hundreds or millions and thousands; note that the and always comes before the last unit. The numbers are usually invariable: we say two hundred for example and not *two hundreds. The same applies to million and billion. The latter has the general meaning nowadays in English-speaking countries of 109 (in Britain it used to mean 1012). The word trillion is also used, meaning 1012. We only use the plural when we do not mean a definite number, e.g. the storm caused several billions of dollars of damage, millions of years ago. Every three digits to the left is separated by a comma or (a more recent development and used in some journals) by a space (but not by a decimal point as in German):
1 Remember the difference in stress between 'thirty and 'thirteen.

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3,456 (3 456) 123,456 (123 456) 123,456,789 (123 456 789) Note that years are generally expressed in English not with the hundreds or thousands but as two separate two-digit numbers: nineteen ninety-eight (1998) ten sixty-six (1066) nineteen oh one (1901) Exceptions are: two thousand (2000) two thousand and ten (2010) Time will tell if we will also abbreviate these years (to twenty forty etc.) in the coming millennium. We usually put cardinal numbers before other adjectives: the four green fields 1.1.2 The ordinal numbers The ordinal numbers are usually formed by adding -th, except for: first second third and their combinations: forty-first. Note the irregular spelling in the following: fifth eighth ninth twelfth twentieth, thirtieth etc.

Dates are written and expressed in the following ways: 19th July 1998 = the nineteenth of July nineteen ninety-eight (GB) July 19, 1998 = July nineteenth, nineteen ninety-eight (USA) Larger ordinal numbers are written as follows:

Numbers and mathematics

95th = ninety-fifth 101st = one hundred and first We usually put cardinal numbers before other adjectives, even before ordinal numbers: the first three American presidents 1.1.3 Fractions Fractions are rational numbers that can be expressed as the ratios of two integers a/b: a half/one half, one third, two thirds, three quarters. The ordinal numbers are generally used, with the following exceptions: half, quarter. A hyphen is generally used, apart from fractions with a, e.g. a half, a third; fractions are can take the plural. Fractions in algebra may be expressed as in the form:

1+ x 1 x
This is expressed in words as: one plus x over [or: divided by]one minus x

1.2 DECIMALS
The following is an example of a decimal fraction: 0.0345 Note the following: a) b) c) we use a decimal point in English instead of a comma in German; 0 is generally represented by: zero (more mathematical) nought (general technical) oh (everyday English) we express each digit separately, so the number reads:

nought point nought three four five OR point nought three four five The number above is given to four decimal places; it could be the number 0.0345267 given to (or rounded down to) four significant figures.

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1.3 NUMBER SYSTEMS

The set of real numbers has as its elements the rational numbers and the irrational numbers. The former are the whole numbers or integers

0, +1, +2, +3,...

and non-integers, numbers that can be expressed as the ratio of two whole numbers, i.e. the fractions above. The positive integers 0, +1, +2, +3,... are called the natural numbers. Contained in the set of integers is the subset of prime numbers which are defined as being only divisible by 1 and the number itself. The set of positive prime numbers is: {1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19...} An irrational number is a real number that cannot be written as an integer or as a quotient of two integers. The irrational numbers are infinite, nonrepeating decimals, e.g. .2

1.4 PERCENTAGES AND UNITS

1.4.1 Percentages Percentages are generally expressed together with the preposition of and with or without the definite article:
(5) It will be noted from the normal distribution table that approximately 68 percent of the area under the curve lies within the range z = -1 and z = +1 or within +1 standard deviation from the mean... (6) To determine P95, arrange the values in order of size and count off 95 per cent of them. The value appearing nearest that point is the 95th percentile.

We use the definite article when we are saying something about a determined or definite part of a whole, while we leave out the article when we are listing the parts of a whole. 1.4.2 Units
2 This number is in fact a transcendental number.

Numbers and mathematics

Most units in English are treated as normal countable nouns that take a singular and a plural: 10 m 85,000 gal 35oC 40 kg 85 lb = ten metres = eighty-five thousand gallons = thirty-five degrees Celsius = forty kilograms (kilos) = eight-five pounds

There are exceptions: one hundred bar. However, when a unit is used to modify another noun, then it is written as follows: a ten-degree rise in temperature. Here the expression ten-degree modifies the noun rise; it is written in the singular and joined together with a hyphen. Note the following: m = square metres, m = cubic metres, and units such as: N/m2 = newtons per square metre The Americans still use the old British units: gallons, feet, pounds abbreviated to gal, ft, lb. The following conversions apply: a) b) c) d) 1 US gallon = 3.7854 litres (1 UK gallon = 4.546 litres); 1 inch = 2.54 centimetres 1 foot = 0.3048 m 1 pound = 453.592 g

Note the American spelling of the following units: liter, meter, kilometer (British -re American -er).

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2 MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS
There is a wide variety of mathematical expressions in English. Here are some of the most important.

2.1 Trigonometric functions

Let us start with the trigonometric functions. The Pythagorean theorem can be stated as: where A and B are the sides of a right-angled triangle and C is the hypotenuse. The trigonometric functions are sine (sin), cosine (cos), tangent (tan), and are defined as follows: TABLE 1

A2 + B 2 = C 2

sin = cos = tan =

A C B C A B

The law of Sines states:

sin sin sin = = A B C

This reads: sine alpha over A equals sine beta over B...

2.2 Derivatives and integrals

A function of a single variable x is denoted by f(x), which reads f of x. The derivative is: dy dx and is expressed as dy by dx.

Numbers and mathematics

An integral of f (x)dx is any function whose differential is f ( x ) dx , and is denoted by

f ( x )dx , which reads the integral of f of x dx. All the integrals

of f ( x ) dx are included in the expression

f ( x)dx + C , where

f ( x )dx is

any particular integral, and C is an arbitrary constant. The following integral

x0

f ( x)dx

x1

is expressed as the integral from x zero to x one of f of x dx. The following are some commonly used symbols in mathematics:

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Table 1: COMMONLY USED MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS Meaning Plus or minus Equals Is identical with Approximately equals Is not equal to Greater than Less than Greater than or equal to Less than or equal to Minus Sign of division Divided by Times, by Multiplied by x squared x cubed x to the [power of] n x [raised] to the nth power (the) square root (of) Approaches, tends to Varies as | | Absolute value Infinity n! Factorial, n(n-1)(n-2)...1 Sum of a series of numbers Therefore dx Differential of x Increment of x x Partial derivative u/x Nabla Thus we express the following equation Symbol = > < / x2 x3 xn

a 2 + b2 = c2

Numbers and mathematics in language as: a squared plus b squared equals c squared. Note the following:

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( a + b) 2
is expressed as: a plus b all squared. In vector analysis we draw a distinction between two kinds of product, the scalar or dot product and the vector or cross product. The scalar product is defined as:

A B = A B cos
while the vector product is

AB
2.3 Exponential functions and logarithms
The basic result is that if y = ln x, that is y is equal to the natural logarithm of x, y equals log n of x or y equals ln of x, then x = ey. The definition of the natural logarithmic function y = loge x is expressed as y is equal to the logarithm/log of x to the base e. EXERCISE A. EXPRESS THE FOLLOWING IN WRITTEN FORM:
1. 2,187 2. 4.03187 3. 412,397 km 4. 0.001% 5. 1.602192 10-19 6. 20/09/1904 7. 7/8 8. 1.380622 x 10-23 J K-1

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B. EXPRESS THE FOLLOWING EQUATIONS IN WORDS:

1. ( x a ) + ( y b ) = r 2. 3. 4. 5.

d ( e u ) = e u du
x + iy = r (cos + i sin ) = re i

a b = e b ln a
d dv du f (t )dt = f (v ) f (u) dx u ( x ) dx dx
v( x)