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 language of mathematics?

Let us try to answer this question.

If we know the language of mathematics relatively well, do we use it in our everyday lives?

Everybody uses the language of mathematics to some extent in their daily life. We are often so used to this language that we do not even think about how grateful we should be 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 that we all use without being mathematicians.

The language of mathematics is part of human civilisation. In fact, it has helped to shape human civilisation and culture.

Maths is not confined to abstract concepts that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is reflected through it.

Maths allows us to see the hidden structures beneath 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 mathematical applications that everybody certainly uses in daily life.

Managing money and family budgets, shopping for the best price

We live in a consumer society, and every day in the shops we have to solve the dilemma of which product offers the best value for money. In other words, which product is the cheapest?

Unfortunately, not everybody in the shop is able to decide which product is the best buy.

There are very often discounts in shops. 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, to be more precise, not money itself, but the human desire to possess more and more of it.

Yet money also allows us to do many good things that can benefit everybody.

We count money. We add, subtract, multiply and divide it.

We dream about money.

We try to detach ourselves from its power so that we can concentrate more on the spiritual side of life.

Sometimes this is easier to achieve, but sometimes it is very difficult.

It is an inner battle.

The four main mathematical operations

Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing—these four mathematical operations have shaped our lives since the earliest stages of human civilisation.

We use them constantly.

Naturally and subconsciously, we are more attracted to addition and multiplication 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 gained the reputation of being associated with loss and reduction.

Again, it depends on what we are talking about.

If we use subtraction and division to reduce our daily suffering, pain, disappointment and misery, these two mathematical operations can be very useful.

And if we can apply them on a broader scale to reduce poverty, wars and murders, the language of mathematics itself would be happy to serve such a noble cause.

Another word for division is sharing.

Sharing is one of the things that keeps human beings together as a unique species.

Please practise division every day by sharing good gestures, food, smiles, laughter, peace, understanding, good intentions, love and kindness.

We need much more of all these things.

We can see that the four main mathematical operations are incredibly helpful, and our lives would be much poorer without them.

Shapes

Everything around us has a shape—two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

Mathematics gives us knowledge about the properties of shapes.

Using these properties, we can describe shapes and talk about them.

If we look around the room we are in at the moment, we can spot triangles, circles, squares, rectangles and many other polygons.

Instinctively, we try to avoid the sharp corners of triangles, especially acute angles.

They remind us of pain.

We usually do not mind obtuse angles, although the outside corner can also be quite sharp.

For us, circles often represent wholeness, unity and harmony, with neither beginning nor end.

Shapes can create fascinating patterns.

In nature there are countless different shapes, and perhaps not all of them even have mathematical names.

Nature is richer than our knowledge of it.

Shapes can also symbolise a closed existence—a stage of our lives when we are part of something, a group or a society, and there seems to be no way out.

Breaking the sides of the shape can become our way to freedom.

There are different kinds of freedom.

There is freedom from social chains that hold people tightly and do not allow them to follow their own free will. Such totalitarian societies still exist.

Freedom of speech is something we should all continue to defend, and unfortunately censorship is still very much alive in many cultures.

So it is our own choice—to remain locked inside the shape or to try to break free from it.

And we need to be aware of the consequences of both choices.

Counting, measuring, weighing and ordering

Every day we count or measure something.

This is so common that we tend to forget that we borrow this knowledge from mathematics.

Our ability to organise ideas and express them clearly is an important part of our identity.

The concepts of counting and ordering—arranging things from the smallest to the largest, or from the largest to the smallest—reflect the hierarchy that exists in society.

They reassure us that we can bring order to chaos.

Transformations of shapes

We transform ourselves all the time.

We rotate to change direction.

We see our reflections in a mirror, producing an image of ourselves.

We move to the left or to the right.

More often than not, we perform combinations of all these transformations without even realising that these actions are studied in mathematics.

Parts of a whole, loans and interest, estimating cost and profit

One important skill we need in modern life is knowing how to calculate interest and compound interest.

To do this, we need a basic understanding of percentages and how to calculate a percentage of an amount.

We also need to understand parts of a whole—decimals, fractions and percentages.

Some knowledge of loans, interest and personal finance helps us understand the language used by banks and other financial institutions.

We use rounding very often, especially when numbers are too large to work with exactly and we want to make mental calculations easier.

Whenever we start a business or plan a project, we try to estimate, rather than calculate exactly, the costs and the profits.

Rounding and estimating are part of our everyday thinking.

Collecting and analysing data, presenting data in tables and graphs, working with averages

We live in a society that is obsessed with statistics.

As individuals, we use aspects of statistics every day.

Almost everything we use has its own history.

Keeping records of what has happened in the past and what may happen in the future is also part of statistics.

Without statistics, we would not know what worked well and what did not work at all.

Statistics help us compare, analyse and draw conclusions.

They help us plan surveys, collect data, make lists, organise information, interpret results and present data in tables and graphs.

In many ways, everybody is a statistician in everyday life.

When data sets are very large, we often use averages to represent what is typical for a group of people or things.

For example, we may read in a newspaper that, on average, people watch three hours of television a day.

Averages are far from telling the whole story, but they are often much more convenient to work with.

Sports

Geometry can help if we want to improve our skills in sports.

It can help us find the best angle and the best way to hit a ball, score a basket or run around a track.

A basic knowledge of maths also helps us keep track of sports scores, especially knowledge of angles, shapes, speed and pressure.

Home decorating, filling a container with water

Calculating area and perimeter is an important skill at home.

It is useful when we are renovating our homes or flats, for example when replacing a carpet.

It helps us calculate how much paint we need when repainting a room.

It is also an important skill for anyone who wants to install new tiles in a bathroom or kitchen.

To fill a container with water, we need to know its volume so that we can fill it with the correct amount.

Cooking

People use mathematical knowledge when cooking every day.

For instance, it is very common to make half or double a recipe.

We use proportions and ratios to calculate the correct amount of each ingredient.

If a recipe calls for 2/3 of a cup of sugar, we have to calculate how much half or double of 2/3 of a cup is.

We then express the result using the standard measuring cups commonly used in baking, such as ¼ cup, ⅓ cup, ½ cup or 1 cup.

Figuring out distance, time and travel costs. Time management

Telling the time requires a surprising number of skills.

It is not as simple as it seems.

For example, we need to know that there are 24 hours in a day, that each day is divided into two 12-hour periods, that each hour has 60 minutes, and that each minute has 60 seconds.

We are all time managers in our everyday lives.

Allowing ourselves to spend more or less time on something makes us feel as if we own time, or as if we can control it.

If only it were that simple.

Time is far greater and more complex than we imagine.

Time machines have been the subject of countless works of fiction, perhaps because we often believe we would be happier somewhere else, at some other time.

It is a form of escape from reality.

When we travel, we apply our understanding of the relationship between time, speed and distance.

Very often these become topics of conversation throughout the journey—our destination, fuel, speed and travel time.

Drivers, in particular, enjoy discussing these things.

Chance and probability

Probability is closely related to chance.

It is the study of things that might happen—or might not happen.

We use the idea of probability most of the time, usually without even thinking about it.

Although we do not solve formal probability problems in our everyday lives, we constantly use subjective probability to make decisions and judgments.

Everything from weather forecasting to our chances of being involved in an accident or winning the lottery is related to probability.

Probability is the mathematical term for the likelihood that something will happen.

It helps us understand and estimate the likelihood of different possible outcomes.

"What is the chance that it will rain tomorrow?"

Millions of people ask themselves this important question every morning.

"What is the chance that I will win the lottery?"

Is it close to zero, or do I have the same chance as everybody else?

If everyone has an equal chance, why have I still never won the lottery?

These, and many other questions about things that may or may not happen, belong to the world of probability.

We can continue looking for applications of maths on many other occasions, and the list would become even longer.

I have tried to focus on the most obvious everyday uses, but we can confidently conclude that maths is everywhere.

There are enormous benefits to learning mathematics, regardless of your profession or career.

Maths develops analytical thinking and teaches us methods for solving complex problems, while helping us see the bigger picture.

It makes our minds quicker and teaches us to think logically.

Logical reasoning is one of the defining characteristics of the human mind and helps us understand order and common sense.

Creativity is another important aspect of mathematics.

It represents our ability to break established patterns and create new combinations that speak through their own powerful metaphorical language.

Activity

Can you make a list of the everyday uses of maths in your own life?

Do you use everything from my list above?

What else could you add?

Can you spot any patterns and sequences around you?

Feel free to add to my list!

(E. S. Lyubenova; LoveMaths Story for My Students)