Math Basics
AI can do the arithmetic for you, but deciding what to calculate and judging whether the answer is right is still your job. This course rebuilds the math you need for that judgment.
Once you have been out of school for a while, math tends to survive only as "the subject where you memorize formulas." Yet in adult life, the moments when you need math are usually about intuition, not formulas: figuring out what a price ends up being after a discount and a markup, how big a change a "twofold increase" in a news story really is, or how loan interest grows over time.
In the age of AI, that intuition matters even more. AI calculates quickly, but if the problem is set up wrong, it will present a wrong calculation very neatly. You can only trust and use AI's calculations if you can read a solution, spot which step looks off, and have the habit of checking answers.
The course runs in this order: numbers and ratios (Lessons 1–2), expressions and graphs (Lessons 3–5), shapes (Lesson 6), probability and statistics (Lessons 7–9), and the math of AI (Lesson 10). Every lesson comes with step-by-step solutions and checks, so instead of just reading along, work through them yourself on paper.
- Anyone who always got confused dividing fractions or calculating percentages
- Anyone who wants to judge the numbers and charts in news and reports for themselves
- Parents who want to relearn the basics to help their children with math
- Anyone who wants the big picture of the math that makes AI work
Lessons
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1LESSON
🔢 Numbers and Operations: Fractions and Decimals Revisited
Follow the order of operations, add fractions only after cutting them into "pieces of the same size," and think of division as "how many times does it fit?" With that, fraction and decimal arithmetic stops being shaky.
15 min -
2LESSON
📊 Ratios and Rates: Reading Percentages Correctly
With percentages, the key is always "a percentage of what?" In other words, what is the base? When the base changes, the same percentage means a different amount.
17 min -
3LESSON
⚖️ Equations: A Balance for Finding Unknown Numbers
An equation is a balance with equal weight on both sides. One principle, that doing the same thing to both sides keeps the balance, lets you solve everything from moving terms to systems of equations and word problems.
20 min -
4LESSON
📈 Functions and Graphs: An Eye for Change
A function is a rule that assigns exactly one output to each input, and the slope of a linear function is "how much the output changes when the input goes up by 1." Get hold of these two ideas, and graphs start talking to you.
18 min -
5LESSON
🚀 Exponents and Logarithms: A World That Grows by Multiplying
Things that grow by adding and things that grow by multiplying grow in completely different ways. Exponents are the language for quantities that grow by multiplying, and logarithms ask the reverse question: "How many times was it multiplied?"
18 min -
6LESSON
📐 Geometry Basics: Area and Pythagoras
Every area formula comes from "turning the shape into a rectangle," and the Pythagorean theorem is the relationship among the three sides of a right triangle. With these two, you can solve most everyday problems about lengths and areas.
18 min -
7LESSON
🎲 Probability: Putting Numbers on Uncertainty
Probability is "the share of desired outcomes among all possible outcomes." Counting the outcomes with nothing missed and nothing counted twice is almost all there is to calculating probability.
17 min -
8LESSON
📉 Statistics: Mean, Median, and Variance
When you sum up data in a single number, you have to look at both "where the middle is" and "how spread out it is." If you look only at the mean, you miss half the story.
20 min -
9LESSON
🔍 Reading Data: The Traps in Graphs
Numbers don't lie, but the way they are presented easily creates misunderstandings. The habit of checking the axes, the base, the sample, and what is being compared is what lets you read data correctly.
16 min -
10LESSON
🧠 The Math for Understanding AI
AI's calculations come down to repeating two things: "multiply lists of numbers together and add them up" and "adjust a little at a time in the direction that reduces the error." Work through small examples by hand, and you'll see that giant models run on the same pattern.
20 min