Math Words

As a math teacher, I feel responsible to teach everyone around me mathematics.

Okay, so not really. But it is fun to dispense information when possible. Since I can't hear your groans or see you rolling your eyes , I will probably do that regularly here.

So, lesson #2: Learn your prefixes.

In math and many of the sciences, we borrow words from Latin and Greek. So knowing some of the number prefixes from those languages are helpful. Here are the prefixes for 1-9. We will wait for a later lesson to go farther.

1 hen- or un-
2 di- or bi-
3 tri-
4 tetra- or quad-
5 penta-
6 hexa-
7 hepta-
8 octa-
9 ennea- or nona-

In situations where I have given 2, the first is the one most commonly used in mathematics.

Now, why do you need to know these? The most common mathematical situation is in the naming of polygons (2-D figures) and polyhedra (3-D figures). A pentagon is a 2-D figure with 5 sides. A tetrahedron is a 3-D figure with 4 faces.

Math for Mom

My Mom read my comment on Roca's blog to "The Randomness of Life" and wanted to know, "What's a heptakaidecagon?" So I told her, it's a 17-sided polygon. Now, if my self-described math-impaired mother can learn this word, anybody can. I think I'm going to post other interesting math words for her regularly.

Have a nice weekend!