Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2017 July 28

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July 28

Capital, Income and Expenses

How do you use “+” and “–” with it?

See Accounting_equation. 196.213.35.146 (talk) 07:23, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

Note that using "+" to show positive amounts of money and "-" to show negative amounts is by no means universal in accounting. Other methods include separate columns for positive and negative amounts, placing negative amount in parens, and making negative amounts red, with positive amounts black. There are many different accounting methods, and situations, where different methods are used. StuRat (talk) 21:32, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

I wish to use Excel as it is convenient. Do you recomend anything else to use? 116.58.203.168 (talk) 15:53, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

By default, I would expect Excel to mark negative values with "-", but NOT mark positive values with "+". You would need to change the formatting on a range of cells (or the entire spreadsheet) to change that. StuRat (talk) 23:38, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Literature for covering high school

I, as an adult learner, would like to learn some math and even stems some courses as a visitor at university. What would be a good, comprehensive literature list that covers what university teachers expect that people learn in school? — Preceding unsigned comment added by B8-tome (talk • contribs) 23:32, 28 July 2017 (UTC)

I was about to give an answer for the British system, but then spotted that you are not British. Are you asking about the American curriculum? Dbfirs 06:49, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

No need to be US. An answer about the British system would be OK too.B8-tome (talk) 07:06, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

You don't mention your starting-point, but I assume that you have a basic knowledge of the subject. This site gives some indication of the topics that a British university course might assume, but individual courses will sometimes make exceptions for adult learners who have not followed a normal A-level course. There might be some suitable material in Wikiversity. If you have gaps in your knowledge of mathematics normally taught in the UK up to the age of sixteen, then BBC Bitesize might be useful. Dbfirs 09:37, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

It's also very dependent on your intended course of study. If you are studying art and literature, the math reqs will be far less than if you are going for a science degree. StuRat (talk) 23:40, 29 July 2017 (UTC)

Obviously that's true, but I'd assumed from the question and from the fact that this is the Mathematics reference desk, that B8-tome was wanting to study mathematics. Dbfirs 15:20, 30 July 2017 (UTC)