It's also a day without using anything he learned in art, or geography, or chemistry, or English literature, or history, or pretty much anything he studied in school after age 10. Why does math get singled out?
Because math is abstract and difficult to relate to. We should be taught practical applications of the abstract concepts, and the exam questions should be more practical.
yeah i think most of us were taught by people who didn't "understand" math either, so we don't really get what it is that we're doing, we just memorize the process to get the numbers to match, which isnt fun at all. I had a very difficult time in school with math.
When i was reintroduced to math functions as an electrician (and an adult) and the numbersoup actually described tactile, real world connections i had a much more fun time learning them.
The reason why they're abstract and difficult to relate to is because we're all being taught maths backwards.
In science, a phenomenon is observed and then maths is used to create a set of equations describe it's behaviour. Then using the equations, other experiments can be designed to prove other hypothesises. This is known as the experimentalist approach to science.
Engineering is the same but less research and more application focused. For example, I need to design a wooden shelf that is A inches/meters long and supports B lb/kg of weight. How do I do that? Using trigonometry and Newtonian physics to work out the dimensions.
Finance is often used for basic algebra and calculus.
However, it is not always helpful to work in the material when using mathematics and the abstract is preferred. This is usually only useful for the theoretical approach in science, in theoretical mathematics, or at the cutting edge of engineering disciplines.
If we were taught by being presented with a problem first, I think it would make it easier to make the leap into the abstract when required for other applications. And on top of this, it would make it much easier for the majority who only ever need to use mathematics as a tool.
The biggest thing I learned from math was training yourself to think and problem solve. To always want to learn the next level of whatever you were learning, whether it's math English or whatever.
I don't think I've ever used much math knowledge in my life ... but it gave me the ability and enthusiasm of wanting to always want to solve a problem no matter how complex it was.
I think it's because some types of math are kind of all or nothing, either you know it or you don't. If you recall half of what you learned in history you have some usable knowledge.
I literally, 30 seconds ago, used sin^-1() to calculate the angle for a roof I need to make for my indoor greenhouse, so the asshole cats don't fall through the cheap plastic
You're also technically using them if you merely play games. Edit: You also use cos when making or viewing a jpg, so the author of the meme did in-fact use at least cos on that day.
You use it, but it's all preprogrammed into the software you use, so you can focus on the bigger problems.
It's a bit like how microprocessors are designed modularly using programming language. No one physically lays out a transistor on a 7nm die, that's all dictated by code, where at the higher levels you just see "memory block" and "arithmetic block" or whatever.
Finite Element Analysis is some funky shit, though, and often that's done using bespoke software. You need to know the maths to build that, and it helps to have an understanding when interpreting the results. At least, it helps the person writing the report make a good report, though it's not like anyone else will know if they get it wrong.
This is dumb. Just because you don't use logarithms doesn't mean you never use deduction or process of elimination. Math is not solely about the numbers. The process is far more beneficial in many disciplines.
If you ever have to cut a bit of wood to act as a diagonal brace it's pretty useful to whip out the old tan. So I've used this every time I built a gate.
That's four times in the last decade, so not exactly daily but I'm glad I knew how to do it or my gates would have sucked.
I had a maths teacher who upon being asked, whats the point in maths? Or whenever he heard I'm not going to use this in the rest of my life! Would break into a ten minute speech.
You have to study maths because what it is at it's core is just doing the same thing over and over again with slight variations. -more waffle I can't remember- and after school you will go off to some job where you do the same thing over and over again where you will spend the next 60 years of your life. And then you die.
You're literally using a device powered by electricity that extensively relies on an understanding, implementation and exploitation of sinusoidal maths.
I was trying to figure out a problem the other day and realized that if I still remembered how to implement some sort of mathematical concept I learned back in high school I would've been able to do it. Made me want to call up a friend and say something like "it finally happened!"
I use a calculated sine wave to generate models of convoluted foam! (I'm a packaging engineer). And multivariable calculus can be used to predict cushion curves!
I remember looking into engineering school and seeing packaging sciences and packaging engineering and thinking what, boxes?
Just the other day I took apart a very intricately put together box and I thought about it, and then I thought further about how everything comes in a box and how maybe I should've given that major some more serious thought. I wasn't good at giving things serious thought when I was 17 though.
If you listened to music, your phone used them about a billion times. ... well, not exactly since more efficient algorithms than full perfect computation exist, but...
Same for GPS, cell signal processing, camera functions... They're all over the place. Taking that picture required it.
Like I said: more efficient algorithms have been figured out. That doesn't mean those equations are magically meaningless or not involved conceptually. Trigonometry is everywhere, doing important things.
I always yearned to understand a practical reason to learn calculus. My teacher at college was a German woman that spoke English with a thick accent.
Her joy for the course seemed self-evident, but she failed to ever share a real-world reason or application for what we were trying to learn.
45 years later,I still haven’t used what I “learned”, or ever came to understand why we did.
The thing is, without learning basic math and physics in school, most people would probably be flat earthers or some other type of degenerates.
Without knowing/understanding that it's possible to go the moon, or understanding why rubbing a stick against another stick makes fire, all the nonsense ideas that are the "easiest" to accept would prevail.
Let's say I tell you that 2+2=5. If you know that 1+1=2, you can reasonably deduct that what I'm saying is false. If you know or atleast have seen how to do calculations with gravity, you can reasonably understand that it's possible to figure out how to put a rocket in space. You probably won't be able to do it yourself, but you understand that it's possible.
I always yearned to understand a practical reason to learn calculus.
I use my understanding of second and third derivatives and the risks and how they affect the likelihood of black swan events - to choose (strongly influence) who loses when playing a game of "Liars Dice". So there is that, I guess.
On a more serious note, lots of things in personal finance are a bit easier to understand with a functional understanding of derivatives and integrals. It's not critical, but it makes stuff like the compounding time effect of interest more accessible, I think.
Edit: If I could change one thing about pubic schools, I think everyone should get a chance to take stats or probability for free. It helps so much with so many areas of life.
This has always been my biggest gripe. I took linear algebra for 1 semester and while I passed, I never understood the point. Next semester I took computer graphics and everything clicked. I had a simial experience with taking Calculus and Physics. It only made sense once I understood the application.
No one knows what a 12 year old is gonna end up doing with their life. It's better to give them as many tools so they have the opportunity to follow through with something. A kid wont grow up to be an engineer if they didn't learn geometry fundamentals in middle school, or a nurse if they didn't learn basic anatomy, or a chemical engineer if they didn't learn how chemical reactions occur.
Calculus is how I think about physics, and specifically used in almost every way I physically interact with the world. When thinking about whether to accelerate to pass someone, be it walking or driving, that's calculus.
It's the highest level of that math that comes intuitively to me, and I suspect that's why I think in it. I suspect smarter people than me go through life intuitively thinking of everything in higher forms of math.