Keeping up with basic health information requires basic knowledge of statistics in order to understand what published studies really are saying. And, if you or a family member ends up with a rare disease, you really are going to need to understand statistics since you may be willing to spend far more time with the literature than your health care providers are willing to spend. In order to be an effective avocate for your own care, you have to be able to understand basic statistics.
Cooking, mortgages, budgets, balancing finances, investments–knowing when you’re making vs. losing money and how much you are paying for any advice or service ALL use math. I dont use calculus much, nor trigonometry, but most folks DO use basic math–adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, pretty often in daily life. Annuities and pensions are based on life expectancies and return rates–if you can’t do any math, you are at the mercy of those who can and have to decide whether to blindly trust them. It’s very useful to be able to do quick estimates and know whether the amount you are charged is close or way off, so you aren’t mischarged.
Read Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise. I’m trying to get through it and it’s making me wish I had paid better attention in Statistics.
Now, that guy knows math!!
I’ve subbed in a high school math course a few times this fall. The students are learning how to balance their checkbook, finding out what their down payment and monthly payment will be for a car, and how much interest they are paying on various loans. Wish we had something like this way back when.
I’m a baseball buff and there has been a huge leap in utilizing statistics to compare major league ballplayers. For example, one WAR equals 6 to 7 million dollars is one simple way to evaluate free agent players. Fantasy sports revolves around math and many young people are in leagues and studying stats for three major sports.
We didn’t have a class that taught us practical math, but for may folks, it isn’t tough to pick up if you’re solid in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
The compound interest and amortization tables are helpful tools as well.
Shopping. I can’t understand how people can’t figure out how much an item that costs $100 and is 30% off will cost. Stores are reduced to putting charts on the racks under their “50%” off signs for those who can’t figure out half.
I was working at an elementary school book fair and one of the volunteers was adding up the books with the calculator, writing down the total, calculating the 6% sales tax, writing that down then adding the two numbers together. I showed her that if she took the total of the books and multiplied by 1.06 she could skip a step and she asked me how that worked. This woman had a college degree.
In public policy you might want to know if an increase in a tax will lead to more or less revenues. You might want to be able to understand and critically assess a report that finds that a certain type of govt spending might have a 15% return on investment. Understanding what is behind these things requires some math.
I want to rent a storage locker. One company offers the first month rent ($50 free) and it’s $30 for each additional month. The second offers $25 a month. Which company should I use?
I want to paint my room. It’s 8 feet by 15 feet with 8 foot high ceilings. How many gallons of paint am I going to need?
I am laying out a patio. How do I make sure that my corners are square?
I am reading an article that says there’s a ten percent increase in the cancer rate from a certain disease. Should I be worried or not?
Yes, when the computers go down, often clerks can’t figure out prices or give change. It’s sad. They’re puzzled when you give them $10.05 for a $4.55 purchase.
Math through geometry is very practical and useful, especially in making estimates and being sure you understand your personal and org’s finances.
I don’t see this thread as locked.
I’ll be adding up the wife’s time cards tonight, hours and minutes math. I’ve always been really good at doing math in my head - my calculator died during the first five minutes of a Physics 3 final and it hardly slowed me down. I made one and a half batches of egg nog last night ('tis the season), no problem figuring out how many ounces in three-tenths of a gallon.
As an EE, I am used to working in arc-seconds and decibels, working with lots of calculus every day. It’s more of an issue turning it off, allowing someone else to figure out a tip, convert to Celsius or add up a row of numbers, overlooking innocent mistakes. Expensive ones I will point out - a roofer tried to charge our neighbor for 22 squares of shingles, enough for almost 2 houses in our neighborhood.
My Dad was a navigator in the Air Force. He said he needed calculus to do his job. Or maybe I don’t remember that right? That convo occurred many years ago, and maybe now computers do all the work.
I use simple algebra as a nurse when calculating doses. We can use calculators, but often it’s just easier and quicker to do it without.
I once worked in kitchen design for a while and was amazed at the math skills of guys who probably never got to algebra 2, but sure knew how to fit everything precisely, account for clearance, and order just the right amounts of materials. Same with painters, carpenters, electricians, the guys who lay floors, etc.
There’s plenty of math in any kind of racing- how much acceleration for how long will shave seconds. I used to play this on a tamer, safer level when commuting- if I can drive speed limit for X minutes, sightly slower for Y, then get stuck in a traffic jam for Z minutes, will I arrive on time?
I used way more mental and pen-and-paper math when I was working as a journeywoman plumber than I do in my day to day life… and I am the project manager for a large data project where I run statistics pretty much every day. But a computer does that for me… all I do is upload the data and tell the computer what to do. Voila.
I am the one who pays all the bills and keeps track of the budget. Pretty much everything with math involved is done by me. I am the mathy one of the family.
I knitted a sweater for my nephew. It took 18 balls of yarn. I want to knit the same sweater for my son, but he’s six inches taller. How many balls of yarn do I need?
I’m baking cookies. The recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips and 2 1/4 cups of flour. I happen to have 3 cups of chocolate chips. Might as well use them all up. If I want to increase the recipe to use up all the chocolate, how much flour should I use?
CF: I like the way you think. When my kids were young we’d bake at least once a week. Some days we’d double the recipe, some half it and some triple. They loved helping and had no idea they were becoming comfortable with fractions. I was doing the same with my little niece and her mom was watching. She remarked that her daughter hated math. I told her this wasn’t math, it was playing.
When my kids were so young I brushed their teeth for them, we’d play math games while doing so. Like How many two egg omelettes can I make with a dozen eggs? Or is a number divisible by six. Taught them the magic trick of multiplying a two digit number by 11 in their heads. My niece remarked once that she was glad she didn’t grow up here. But my kids have degrees in Economics, and two in Engineering. My youngest claims he became interested in computer science when I taught him base two (as a magic trick) when he was 8.
CF: I would have just eaten the extra chocolate chips while I baked the cookies. No math required!
OP, there are so many things that wouldn’t exist without math. Computers, the Internet and the space program, just to name three.
Baking requires precision with measurements ( except for chocolate chips , which inevitably get eaten in the process )
You use math when you were calculating your practice SAT test score.
I don’t think the examples posted here are very satisfying. For the most part, they are very specialized, or the skills required should have been mastered by 6th grade. I think the reality is that most people don’t use much of the math taught in high school in their everyday lives, unless their job requires it. I think @fallenchemist 's explanation is the best, that math is a tool to increase your critical thinking skills. Though IMO, this means that the math taught in school should be more abstract, and less practical.
One thing I never understood is why people only ask this question about math. I doubt that most adults use their knowledge of Shakespeare or the French and Indian war or photosynthesis in their everyday life. But no one ever seems to have a problem with learning about these in school.