BNU1501/1
Study Guide
BNU1501
Department of Decision Sciences
Bar code
2017 Department of Decision Sciences, University
of South Africa.
,All rights reserved.
Printed and distributed by the
University of South Africa, Muckleneuk,
Pretoria.
BNU1501/1
BNU1501/1
Introduction
Every day we all need to make decisions, and especially financial decisions.
Some of these decisions require a basic ability to use numbers. In this course
we want to help you to acquire basic numeracy skills to use when making
decisions. We will then help you to apply this numeracy to solve problems
encountered in daily life and to make rational and responsible decisions.
Firstly, we show you the numeracy tools you require and what they look like.
We then let you practise until you are proficient with these tools. Lastly, we
show you where you can use these tools to assist you in everyday
decisionmaking.
Are you ready? Let us begin!
3
,BNU1501/1
3
, Contents
Chapter 1 Numbers and variables 9
1.1 Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2 Rounding of numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3 Variables ............................ 14
Chapter 2 Basic operations on numbers and variables 17
2.1 Basic operations on numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.1 Addition and subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.2 Multiplication and division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Basic operations on variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.1 Addition and subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.2 Multiplication and division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3 Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.1 Exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.2 Laws of exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5 Order of operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Chapter 3 More operations on numbers 39
3.1 Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.1 What is a factor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.2 The lowest common multiple (LCM) . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2 Fractions ............................ 43
3.2.1 What is a Fraction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 BNU1501/1
CONTENTS
4
Study Guide
BNU1501
Department of Decision Sciences
Bar code
2017 Department of Decision Sciences, University
of South Africa.
,All rights reserved.
Printed and distributed by the
University of South Africa, Muckleneuk,
Pretoria.
BNU1501/1
BNU1501/1
Introduction
Every day we all need to make decisions, and especially financial decisions.
Some of these decisions require a basic ability to use numbers. In this course
we want to help you to acquire basic numeracy skills to use when making
decisions. We will then help you to apply this numeracy to solve problems
encountered in daily life and to make rational and responsible decisions.
Firstly, we show you the numeracy tools you require and what they look like.
We then let you practise until you are proficient with these tools. Lastly, we
show you where you can use these tools to assist you in everyday
decisionmaking.
Are you ready? Let us begin!
3
,BNU1501/1
3
, Contents
Chapter 1 Numbers and variables 9
1.1 Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2 Rounding of numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3 Variables ............................ 14
Chapter 2 Basic operations on numbers and variables 17
2.1 Basic operations on numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.1.1 Addition and subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.2 Multiplication and division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 Basic operations on variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2.1 Addition and subtraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.2 Multiplication and division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.3 Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.1 Exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.2 Laws of exponents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.4 Roots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5 Order of operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Chapter 3 More operations on numbers 39
3.1 Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.1 What is a factor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.2 The lowest common multiple (LCM) . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2 Fractions ............................ 43
3.2.1 What is a Fraction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 BNU1501/1
CONTENTS
4
