2 Arithmetic Use again the basic arithmetic operations taught at school, including: the use of brackets, fractions, decimals, percentages, negative numbers, powers, roots and logarithms. Apply some of these arithmetic operations to simple economic problems. | 2 Arithmetic Learning objectives After completing this chapter students should be able to Use again the basic arithmetic operations taught at school including the use of brackets fractions decimals percentages negative numbers powers roots and logarithms. Apply some of these arithmetic operations to simple economic problems. Calculate arc elasticity of demand values by dividing a fraction by another fraction. Revision of basic concepts Most students will have previously covered all or nearly all of the topics in this chapter. They are included here for revision purposes and to ensure that everyone is familiar with basic arithmetical processes before going on to further mathematical topics. Only a fairly brief explanation is given for most of the arithmetical rules set out in this chapter. It is assumed that students will have learned these rules at school and now just require something to jog their memory so that they can begin to use them again. As a starting point it will be assumed that all students are familiar with the basic operations of addition subtraction multiplication and division as applied to whole numbers or integers at least. The notation for these operations can vary but the usual ways of expressing them are as follows. Example Addition 24 204 228 Subtraction - 9 089 - 393 8 696 Multiplication x or . 12 x 24 288 Division or 4 448 16 278 The sign . is sometimes used for multiplication when using algebraic notation but as you will see from Chapter 2 onwards there is usually no need to use any multiplication sign to 1993 2003 Mike Rosser signify that two algebraic variables are being multiplied together . A times B is simply written AB. Most students will have learned at school how to perform these operations with a pen and paper even if their long multiplication and long division may now be a bit rusty. However apart from simple addition and subtraction problems it is usually quicker to use a pocket calculator for basic arithmetical .
