All students who are studying math bring up similar questions: ‘We probably won’t need it in life’. If you analyze the graduation statistics, they’re right. Only a small fraction of them will use math. That’s tragic. Math is a divine science! Let’s look why you should love math in the first place.
Reason 1: Single-mindedness
What country is the most powerful? A controversial topic. Who was the greatest president of the US? Many articles have been written with different interpretations. Can a rule of law state wiretap its citizens? Well, these questions are important and can be history research proposal ideas but math is stable: 3x + 4x = 7x. Always. Yesterday, 50 years ago, in Africa, in a crisis, in inclement weather.
Reason 2. Development of thinking.
When a child has learned to count and engaged only in calculations, sooner or later he will stop in development. Yes, it is possible to count verbally, using complex algorithms in the mind, but only the speed of thinking will develop, not the depth.
Next comes an introduction to variables, geometry, trigonometry, logarithms, etc. Another topic leads to the learner developing intellectual abilities: analysis and generalization skills, abstract thinking, and the ability to think in terms of concepts.
Reason 3. The ability to think abstract
We know that one platypus plus two platypuses would be three platypuses. Few people have seen a platypus in person when compounding that equation, though. Math teaches us to think about what we don’t have in reality and to project. We use the incoming information of the present to plan for the long-term or short-term future. The quality of this kind of planning is highly dependent on our mathematical abilities.
Reason 4. Making complex decisions
If we have only ‘n’ dollars, and we need ‘n’ + 2000 dollars for a vacation, we choose the cheapest option, because mathematics has taught us to compare. And no matter how much we want to go on a dream vacation, the harsh reality of math tells us that it will not work. Seems pretty easy, but sometimes students need finance homework help to understand this properly.
Reason 5. It’s practically applicable.
The impact of math on the success of IT-specialists, scientists, and engineers is self-evident. Many engineers use trigonometry in design. Successful office workers have a competitive advantage by knowing how to optimize their activities.
Reason 6. We learn algorithms.
We don’t think when we’re repeating everyday algorithms. We don’t think about how to breathe, we don’t think about how to lace our shoes, we don’t plan our thousandth trip to work. Yes, we mastered most of these skills long before we went to school.
When it comes to high-level algorithms, that’s where math helps us. Making the right solution to a substance, operating (a surgeon makes decisions based on incoming information, and two identical patients will be treated the same way), making logistical decisions, and so on.
Also, math tells us that it is foolish to do the same thing and hope for different results. For example, your colleague brews coffee according to a familiar algorithm, and the coffee machine doesn’t work. He repeats the same action and still no coffee. Well, analyze his mathematical level.
Reason 7. Generate and recognize lies.
Statistics’ lie: ‘Everyone successful in life has seen a sunset or taken a bath, or maybe both’. The conclusion is obvious – if you want to be successful, take a sunset bath.
Statistics’ lie can harm not only the person who reads them but also the person who collects the data. This is sampling falsity. You open your own business and survey a business center, let’s say about confectionery. You got a sample of 1,500 people, you understand what future customers want to see, and you open a confectionery shop in your bedroom district, taking into account the wishes of the people. But the customers don’t come, and you’re a bankrupt.
This trap can be set on purpose. For example, ‘As the Internet survey shows, 100% of the population has access to the Internet.’
There is also the lie of probability. Not everyone is correct enough about the relationship between events and the number of repetitions. First example: if the probability of a house by the sea flooding, for example, is 1/10,000, then when we calculate the probability of two houses flooding at once, we get 1/100,000,000. This is incorrect because if a house is flooded, it means that there was a natural disaster: a heavy downpour, big waves caused flooding. Many houses would flood under such conditions, and the likelihood of a second house being flooded is much higher.
The second example is the number of repetitions. If we have a small probability of an event, but its conditions are often repeated, then it is likely to happen. Let’s say the probability of slipping in the tub without a mat is 1/5,000. How often do we shower? Once or twice a day. So we can assume that if we don’t put a mat on the bottom of the tub, we’ll still slip about once every 10 years, and the outcome depends on dexterity and luck.
