Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
chapter 3
Sets, Exponents,
Roots, and Radicals
This chapter explores the concept of sets and how you can use them to help
organize groups of numbers. Among key concepts in this respect are unions,
intersections, and subsets. Additionally, you can have disjunctions. One approach
to illustrating sets involves Venn diagrams, which allow you to visualize rela-
tionships between sets. After investigating sets, you then move on to exponents.
When you work with exponents, you can perform multiplication operations that
involve the same base values by adding the exponents. Likewise, you can perform
division operations by subtracting the exponents. After exploring the pre-
liminaries of exponents, you investigate scientific notation, which provides a
convenient way to represent microcosmic and macrocosmic values. After
exploring scientific notation, you turn to absolute values, which provide a brief
introduction to using the number line to represent numbers. As a final measure,
you return to exponents, this time to explore how to use radical and root notations
in conjunction with exponents. The discussion pursues the following topics,
among others:
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How sets and subsets allow you to more easily group numbers
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Basic operations with exponents, including negative values
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How to work with large and small numbers using scientific notation
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Absolute values
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Radical and root notation as an extension of basic exponents
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