Math Is Fun Forum

Lakretia

Guest

how do we use math in everyday life

can we? why do we learn subjects if we dont need to use them? any ideas why? seems like an investigation

CurlyBracket

Member

From: Your Maths Textbook

Registered: 2022-01-03

Posts: 155

Re: how do we use math in everyday life

Hi Lakretia,

Maths is essential for everyday life.

Are you sure you could survive and flourish without quantification of items?

This a short answer.

But I have a whole story for you if you're interested. Let me know if you are!

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Filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run!

Bob

Administrator

Registered: 2010-06-20

Posts: 10,640

Re: how do we use math in everyday life

hi Lakretia

I often got asked this question when teaching maths to reluctant teenagers.  There are areas of maths that a person may need later in life but I had an additional reason, and the harder maths is for the individual, the stronger the argument.

An athlete may well do weight training even though their sport doesn't require them to lift weights (eg tennis).  This is because it is recognised that such training builds up the right kind of strength/muscle/stamina and so helps them prepare for their sport.

Maths makes you think hard.  When I was a teenager I did two sorts of extra maths to give my brain a workout. 

One was multiplying out a 4 x 4 determinant (letters not numbers) on paper , and then re-assembling it with rows or columns swopped about.  You have to be really careful to get all the letters right at every stage so it is good practice for concentration and neat, careful working.     

The second was to try and solve quadratics using the formula in my head.  I had to evaluate b^2 - 4ac, all without writing anything down.  So far not too bad.  I allowed myself to look up the square root to 4 decimals places (using tables).  Then , still without writing anything down, I had to complete the two calculations, just writing down the final answers.  For me it was hard to do the root - b part and then the division always having to remember all the digits. I found this improved my concentration a lot and I like to think enabled me to do harder thinking.

I still try to do this sort of thing to keep my brain going.

Bob

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Children are not defined by school ...........The Fonz
You cannot teach a man anything;  you can only help him find it within himself..........Galileo Galilei
Sometimes I deliberately make mistakes, just to test you!  …………….Bob

CurlyBracket

Member

From: Your Maths Textbook

Registered: 2022-01-03

Posts: 155

Re: how do we use math in everyday life

One was multiplying out a 4 x 4 determinant (letters not numbers) on paper , and then re-assembling it with rows or columns swopped about.

What is a determinant?

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Filling the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run!

Jai Ganesh

Administrator

Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 48,837

Re: how do we use math in everyday life

Hi CurlyBracket,

See the link: Matrices.

Determinant of a Matrix.

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It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge - Stephen William Hawking.

mathdrop

Member

Registered: 2022-03-07

Posts: 75

Re: how do we use math in everyday life

The math we have discovered yet is finite,
and there are maybe a bunch of people like my,
who have been able to make use of a lot of it.

Of course it depends on your everyday life
and how you choose it to be.

With math, you could, for instance,
create soundwaves or models of 3D-Objects
(look at the shapes of all the parts,
you have in your household or a car).
And so much more..

You can tackle stuff you would not even have imagined,
but maybe you will miss some life out there, while looking
on a piece of paper or nowadays a computer screen.