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No matter which healthcare fi eld you choose for your career, you will
be required to perform some math calculations when doing your job. Of
course, there are professions in the medical fi eld such as pharmacists, phy-
sicians, or registered nurses that will require more math skills than others.
But at the minimum, you will be required to know how to add, subtract,
multiply, divide, and use the metric system. You will also be expected to
understand and use decimals, fractions, and ratios. It is important that you
are comfortable performing these basic math calculations.
This chapter begins with a review of important math skills. If you fi nd
this review too easy, answer the Basic Math Review questions in the Addi-
tional Practice section at the end of the chapter. If you are able to correctly
answer these questions, and you feel confi dent using a calculator, skip to
the section of the chapter entitled Data Analysis. The student workbook and
a companion website associated with this textbook program contain addi-
tional math problems to help you review various math skills important in
most health professions.
Numbers and the Base Ten System
The number system used for counting based on groups of ten is called
the base ten system. Numbers that have more than one digit are defi ned by
their place value. For example, the number 9,234,567 is read as: nine mil-
lion, two hundred thirty-four thousand, fi ve hundred, sixty-seven. If you
understand the base ten system, you know that you can break that number
down to 9 millions, 2 hundred thousands, 3 ten thousands, 4 thousands,
5 hundreds, 6 tens, and 7 ones. You could illustrate the number 9,234,567 as:
9,000,000 + 200,000 + 30,000 + 4,000 + 500 + 60 + 7
• the ones digit shows the number of ones (1)
• the tens digit shows the number of tens (10)
• the hundreds digit shows the number of hundreds (100)
• the thousands digit shows the number of thousands (1,000)
• the ten thousands digit shows the number of tens of thousands
(10,000)
• the hundred thousands digit shows the number of hundreds of
thousands (100,000)
• the millions digit shows the number of millions (1,000,000)
base ten system
numbering system used for
counting that is based on
multiples of ten