MATHS IN DAILY LIFE

Mathematics is the universal language of our environment, helping people to explain and create. When am I ever going to use maths? Students often wonder if, when, and how they will ever use maths in "real life" situations. The truth is that we use maths all the time!

But how well do we know and how well do we remember the mathematical language? Let us try to answer this question. If we know the mathematical language relatively well do we use it in our everyday real life? Everybody in their daily life uses mathematical languages to some extent. Often we are so used to this language that we don’t even think that we should be grateful to mathematics for developing its symbolic language which serves us in so many ways. Let us try to remember and summarise some of the applications of Maths which we all use without being mathematicians. The mathematical language is part of human civilization, in fact, it helped a lot to shape human civilisation and culture.

Maths isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is mirrored through with it. Maths allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the chaotic surface of our world. With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way.

Let us mention some of the mathematical applications which for sure everybody uses in his daily life.

Managing Money and family budgets, Shopping for the best price:

We live in a consumer society and everyday in shops we have to solve the dilemma - which product gives us the best money for value? That means which product is the cheapest. Unfortunately, maybe not everybody in the shop would be able to decide which product is best to buy. In shops there are very often discounts. It is a useful skill to be able to calculate how much money you need to pay.

Yes, money is the thing that causes so many problems in the world, or it will be precise to say, not money itself, but the human desire to possess more and more money. But with money we can do so many good things, which could be for everybody to use. We count money, we add, subtract, multiply and divide money. We dream about money. We try to detach ourselves from the power of the metal so we can concentrate more on the spiritual part of life. Sometimes it is easier to achieve this but sometimes it is so hard. It is an internal battle.

Four main mathematical operations:

Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying, Dividing. These four mathematical operations have ruled our lives since very early stages of human civilization. We use them constantly. Naturally and subconsciously we are more attracted to adding and multiplying in life. If we increase the amount of something good and precious to us, we prefer addition and multiplication. We are always keen to increase the amount of love, kindness, dreams, achievements, peace and harmony. This seems to be the purpose of our everyday existence. On the other hand, subtraction and division have that bad reputation that people relate them with loss and decrease of something. Again, it depends on what we are talking about. If we use subtraction and division to decrease the amount of our own daily suffering, pain, disappointment, misery - these two mathematical operations could be quite useful. And if we can apply them in a more global stage to reduce poverty, wars and murders, the mathematical language itself would be very happy to serve such a noble cause. The synonym of division is ‘sharing’. Sharing is something that keeps humans together as a special species. Please practise daily division and sharing of good gestures, food, smiles, laughter, peace, understanding, good intentions, love and kindness. We need a lot of this. We can see that the four main mathematical operations are so helpful and our life could be so much worse without them.

Shapes:

Around us everything has some shape - two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Mathematics gives us the knowledge about the properties of the shapes. Using the properties we can describe the shapes, we can talk about them. If we look only in the room that we are in at the moment we can spot some triangles, some circles, some squares, rectangles and some other polygons. We instinctively try to avoid the sharp corners of the triangle especially if they are acute. The association with pain comes to our mind and we would not mind obtuse angles in most situations although the outside corner could be quite sharp as well. Circles for us represent the whole, the unity, the harmony without beginning and end. Shapes can create some interesting patterns. In nature there are a lot of different shapes and maybe not all of them have mathematical names. Nature is richer than the knowledge of it.

Shapes could also symbolise for us a closed existence, a stage of our life when we are part of something, a group, or a society and there is no way out. Breaking the sides of the shape could be our way to freedom. There are different types of freedom - freedom from some social chains, which hold you tight and you are not allowed to do anything following your free will, there are still these kinds of totalitarian societies. Freedom of speech is something we all should be fighting for and unfortunately the censure is still so much alive in many cultures. So it is our own choice - to stay locked in the shape or to try to break it. And we need to be aware about the consequences of both actions.

Counting, Measuring, Weighing, Ordering:

Everyday we count or measure something. This is so common that we tend to forget that we borrow this knowledge from mathematics. Our way of ordering ideas and expressing them correctly is a big part of our image. The ideas of counting and ordering - putting something in order from the smallest and from the biggest represent the hierarchy in the society. It reassures us that we can control chaos.

Transformation of a shape:

We do transformations of ourselves all the time. We rotate to change the direction. We reflect ourselves in a mirror producing an image of ourselves. We translate ourselves to the left or to the right. More often we do combinations of all of these transformations without even realising that these actions are an object of study of Mathematics.

Parts of a whole, Loans and Interest, Estimating the cost and profit:

One important skill we need in today’s modern life is how to calculate interest and compound interest. So, we need some simple facts about percentages and how to calculate percentages of an amount. We use some basic understanding and skills of how to use parts of a whole - decimals, fractions and percentages. We also need to have some knowledge of loans and interests and how we can manage our personal finances. It helps us, when contacting banks, to understand the language and vocabulary they use. We use rounding very often, especially when the numbers are too big to work with and we try to round them so it is easier to calculate them mentally, for example. Always, when we start some business, we try to estimate (not exactly calculating) what is the cost and the profit. Rounding and Estimating are part of our everyday thinking.

Collecting and Analyzing data, Presenting Data in Tables and Graphs, Working with Averages:

We live in a society which is obsessed with statistics. And we as individuals use everyday some aspects of statistics. Every basic thing we use in life has its own history. Keeping a record of what has been done in the past and what is going to happen in the future is part of statistics as well. Without statistics we would not know what worked well and what did not work at all. It helps us to compare, make analyses and conclusions. We use statistical methods all the time. Statistical methods help us to plan the survey in order to collect data, to make lists, to organize, to interpret, and to present data in graphs. Everybody is a statistician in their lives. We often use tables to present simple data as well. When the data is too large we use the most typical for a group of people or things. For example, we can read in the newspapers that on average people watch three hours of television per day. The averages are far from being true but they are more convenient to work with.

Sports:

Geometry can help if we want to improve our skill in sports. It can help to find the best angle and way to hit a ball, make a basket or run around the track. Basic knowledge of maths also helps to keep track of sports scores, especially knowledge about angles, shapes, pressure, speed.

Home Decorating, Filling a container with water:

Calculating areas and perimeter is an important skill at home. It is useful for us for remodeling our homes and apartments, when we are replacing the carpet for example. It helps us to find how much paint we need to buy when repainting a room. It is also an important skill for anyone who wants to install new tiles in a bathroom or a kitchen. To fill a container with water we need to know how to calculate the volume of the container so we fill the right amount.

Cooking:

People use Maths knowledge when cooking every day. For instance it is very common to use a half or double of a recipe. We use proportions and ratios to make correct calculations for each ingredient. . If a recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of sugar, we have to calculate how much is half or double of 2/3 of a cup. Then we have to represent the amount using standard measures used in baking, such as ¼ cup, 1/3 cup, ½ cup or 1 cup.

Figuring out Distance, Time and Cost for travel. Time management:

Telling the time requires complex skills. It is not that simple. For example, we need to be aware that there are 24 hours in a day, that each day is then split into two 12-hour halves, that each hour lasts 60 minutes, and that each minute is 60 seconds-long.

We all are time managers of the events of our everyday lives. Allowing ourselves to spend more or less time for something makes us feel like we own the time, or like we can conduct the time. If only it was so simple. Time is so much bigger and complex than we think. Time machines are an object of so many fiction stories and it comes from the paradox that we always think that we would be happier if we are somewhere else at some other time. Like an escape from reality.

When we are traveling we apply some understanding of the relationship between time, speed and distance. Very often this is an object of discussions for the whole journey - destination, petrol, speed, time. Especially drivers like discussing these topics.

Chance and Probability:

Probability has something to do with a chance. It is the study of things that might happen or might not. We use it most of the time, usually without thinking of it. We don't perform actual probability problems in our daily life but use subjective probability to determine the course of action or any judgment. Everything from the weather forecasting to our chance of dying in an accident, or winning a lottery is a probability. Probability is a mathematical term for the likelihood that something will occur. It is the ability to understand and estimate the likelihood of any different combination of outcomes.

‘What is the chance that tomorrow will be raining?’ Millions of people are asking themselves this sacred question every morning.

‘What is the chance that I will win the lottery?’ Is it close to zero or I do have an equal chance with everybody else? If it is an equal chance why I cannot still win the lottery? And so many other things that may or may not happen are an object of probability.

We can carry on looking for Maths applications on many other occasions and the list will be bigger. I tried to pay attention to the most obvious daily uses but we can conclude that Maths is everywhere.

There are huge benefits of mathematics for education in every profession and job. Maths develops analytical thinking and teaches us to know the methodology of solving complex problems and how to look at the whole picture. It makes our minds quicker and it teaches us how to think logically. Logical reasoning is what defines part of our human brain and what helps to represent the idea of order and common sense. Creativity is the other part of mathematics and represents the concept of how to break order and to make combinations which will speak in their own powerful metaphorical language.

Here is one Activity for you:

Can you make a list with everyday uses of Maths in your life? Do you use everything from my list above? What else could you add to that list? Can you spot some patterns and sequences around you? Feel free to add to my list!

(E. S. Lyubenova; LoveMaths Story for my students)