Welcome to Business Mathematics
About this Textbook
Business Mathematics was created by combining chapters from NSCC Math for Bookkeeping and Business Math: A Step-by-Step Handbook Abridged by Sanja Krajisnik, Carol Leppinen, and Jelena Loncar-Vines, Conestoga College.
Both books are Pressbooks hosted condensed adapted versions of Business Math: A Step-by-Step Handbook by J. Olivier published via Lyryx Learning.
All works shared under CC BY-NC-SA licenses.
What Is Business Math?
Business math is the study of mathematics required by the field of business. By the fact that you are reading this textbook, you must be interested in a business field such as accounting, marketing, human resources, or economics.
Regardless of your path, you cannot avoid dealing with money and numbers. Both personally and in your career you certainly use elementary arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. However, there is a whole field of mathematics that deals specifically with money. You will be offered loans, lines of credit, mortgages, leases, savings bonds, and other financial tools. Do you know what these are and how these financial tools can maximize your earnings and minimize your costs? Do you have what it takes to execute smart monetary decisions both personally and for your business? Do you know how interest works and how it gets calculated? If you can answer “yes” to these questions, then you are already off to a great start. If not, by the end of this textbook you will have a better understanding of all of these topics and more.
How Do I Learn about Business Math?
Let’s be realistic. In some areas of life and business, you can achieve a reasonable degree of understanding just by reading. However, reading about business mathematics without doing it would be disastrous. To succeed, you must follow a structured approach:
- Always read the content prior to your professor covering the topic in class.
- Attend class, ask questions, and explore the topic to advance your understanding.
- Do the homework and assignments—you absolutely must practice, practice, and practice!
- Seek help immediately when you need it. Learning mathematics is like constructing a building. Each floor of the building requires the floor below it to be completed first. In mathematics, each section of a textbook requires the concepts and techniques from the sections that preceded it. If you have trouble with a concept, you must fix it NOW before it causes a large ripple effect on your ability to succeed in subsequent topics. So the bottom line is that you absolutely cannot replace this approach—you must follow it.
MathJax
This resource uses LaTex and a MathJax plugin to render math formulas. Please note that “some screen readers support MathML, MathJax’s internal format. Screen readers like ChromeVox, JAWS (on IE), and TextHelp support MathJax directly (most only version 2); other screen readers are supported by the assistive-mml extension as of version 3.0.1.” (MathJax Consortium, 2021). It is important to also note that the quality of screen reader support varies greatly with the software you are using and the various settings enabled. For more information on MathJax and screen reader support please visit the MathJax Consortium Accessibility Features page.
Original Book Citation
Author: J. Olivier
Publisher: Lyryx Learning Inc.
Book title: Business Math: A Step-by-Step Handbook
Book version: 2021B
Publication date: July 19, 2021
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Book URL: https://lyryx.com/subjects/business/business-mathematics/
