David Hobbs

A mathematical dictionary for schools

A Mathematical Dictionary for Schools contains over 500 definitions of technical terms found within GCSE syllabuses. Key words and phrases are explained in clear, simple language with illustrations to aid understanding of more difficult terms. It has been written for key stage 4/GCSE students but is also suitable for key stage 3 and is the ideal companion for coursework and revision.

Numerical and algebraic approaches to the study of errors of approximation for Euler's constant

The first purpose of this paper is to describe different series which converge at varying speeds to Eulers constant, 7. Limits are set for the errors of approximation in these series. Our second aim is to illustrate the scope for numerical exploration of these and similar results by means of graphical calculators, spreadsheets or other computer programs. Such facilities are now increasingly easy to use and widely available to mathematics students. Exercises or project work based on this material serve to motivate the ideas of limits, size of error, order of convergence and methods of numerical approximation, and are a valuable means of developing students’ skills of investigation and analysis.