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In introductory courses such as chemistry, economics, political science, and psychology, you will often see discussions of examples and topics that require an understanding of concepts in mathematics such as algebra. The examples below are taken directly from different economics textbooks and they demonstrate the kinds of skills that you will be required to use in many non-math introductory courses.
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Production costs are divided into fixed costs and variable costs. All production costs fall within these two categories, so total costs (TC) equal total fixed costs (TFC) plus total variable costs (TVC), or From: Byrns,
R. T. & Stone, G. W. (1995) |
The example above demonstrates the use of basic algebra skills in economics. Without the ability to substitute values for the variables, or the ability to evaluate this equation, there would be no meaning to this paragraph or equation.
Below is a more complex linear equation that relates the yield of lumber to maintenance of land.
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For this forestry example, b = 10,000, m = 1,000, and the equation is: where: y = annual yield of
lumber in board feet To find the harvest rate for each maintenance level, just multiply each possible value of x by 1,000 and add 10,000. From: Byrns,
R. T. & Stone, G. W. (1995) |
This algebra review will provide you with the skills necessary to evaluate the two examples on the previous page, and to solve each equation for any variable.
The skills you will learn in this book are to:
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