Why Mathematics Will Get You Somewhere in Life
For the record, I’m not saying that the cash register at Shoprite will ask you to find the slope of a graph to purchase your items. Nor am I saying you have to find the derivative of a function before you shop on Amazon. Nor am I saying you need to find sin(θ) before being hired as a writer for the New York Times. What I am saying, however, is that math plays a bigger role in your life than you think.
Math is controversial, no doubt. In our generation, when a student hears the word “math,” they are most likely to ramble a novel on how it’s useless, boring, difficult, and a waste of their time. However, it has a substantial impact on our world that not many people take the time to realize, or even think about. The only thing they will describe math as is “absent-minded, demanding, and a punishment.”
Let’s assume someone had issued out a survey (online) to the public on their opinions about mathematics, technology, engineering, and everything in that kind of realm, asking about if it plays an impact in the world. And let’s say it was issued to an unbiased, random population. There is most likely going to be a group of people saying that these things play no universal impact on our world, and we would most likely live in the same way without it. Keep in mind, though, that you’re legitimately saying this on some sort of device, that uses technology.
And people believe that. They believe that math is some sort of paradox that only makes you degrade yourself, that it can only worsen you, and is overall pointless.
If you (as a reader) believe this, let me tell you: math is far more important than you might think.
The Real Impact
Math is all around us. You see it everywhere, from the phone you constantly use to preventing yourself from wasting your budget on a pair of shoes. People don’t realize it, but we wouldn’t cease to survive, let alone live a day, without this prominent piece of art in our world.
Simplistically, math is omnipresent. Looking at the time — requires math. Going shopping — requires math. Baking a new recipe for your grandmother’s birthday — that requires math as well. These simple mathematical concepts you learn earlier on in your education actually can play a prominent role for you today, but people simply cannot realize that. Math not only generates knowledge in the real world, but it also builds your problem-solving skills. Everyone, at some point in time, must have the analytical and computational mindset to be able to adjust to their environment. Not only learning but envisioning yourself in the realm of math helps your brain’s solution skills.
Not only that, but math as a whole helps your brain. A study conducted by Dr. Tanya Evans of Standford University proved that children who had learned math were able to access certain regions in their brain easier, and had more grey matter in said regions (which is a good thing because more grey matter = better comprehension) than students who had performed more poorly in math. Also, children who were better at math were proved to be better at cognitive tasks, including decision-making and attention spans. Though this is more theoretical, there is a proven correlation between educated students and higher cognitive thinking skills.
And preferably, the universal concepts of math shouldn’t be relatively complex to others, because it truly is not. Knowing the effect math can have on our population puts it in a whole new perspective.
Math IS Important
Hopefully, by now, you have established that math is important in an all-embracing concept.
But why? Most people (specifically students) would probably think as follows: “What are the specifics? Why do I need to know algebraic equations, unless I want to pursue a career in math? Why would I need to learn geometry if I want to become a writer? Math really has no point in this situation.”
That’s quite a good observation, actually. But, not the case. And let me tell you why.
Let’s take an example. Linear functions — why in the world is this important for our futures? Linear functions have no significance as we move on further into our life.
Think again.
Linear functions are based on a dependant variable and an independent variable’s relationship, in the form of y = f(x) = ax + b. Broadening this statement further, let’s discuss the actual applications linear functions have in the real world. Creating a business requires linear functions in order to calculate the profits, costs, revenue, and even losses. If you aren’t interested in starting up or participating in a business, your finance plays a fundamental role in relation to linear functions. If you cannot balance your finance, you could be in debt for quite a long time. Economics recognizes the interaction between people and value, and so it also has a relation to more complex linear functions.
These are more “math” related professions. Let us take sinusoidal functions (trigonometric functions). Sinusoidal functions are sine or cosine functions — in generalization, they can be produced with a horizontal shift, vertical shift, compressing, and elongating a certain function. So? Let’s get to the main point: the impact. If you draw out a sinusoidal (let’s use a sine function) function, you end up with the following:
To most people, this probably looks extremely complicated and confusing. However, let us simply pay attention to the waves of the function. The similarity do waves have to our world is sound. It’s the music you might be listening to now, how you are able to communicate with others, but more of, the vibrations of the sound waves that produce these shapes.
If you play an instrument, you would know firsthand about these vibrations. For piano players, as an example, the equation y = sin(2π * 440) is the wave-shaped figure produced when simply playing the note A (the first note above middle C). Similarly, each note has a different equation of sine, and therefore a different graph. Chords can produce even more complicated sine functions (more of adding the individual equations of each “note” into one!), and the list just goes on and on.
But what profession does this help with? Everyone who plays any sort of instrument, including your voice, know this in one way or another! As well as, people who make instruments, for example, luthiers (string instruments) need to be able to understand sinusoidal functions, to produce the correct pitch and vibrations, in relation to the strings.
And this isn’t just applied to these two specific aspects of the math world. It applies to everything. And that is why math is important. Any topic has a relation to some job in science, math, engineering, writing, geographic field, and more. Even cash registers must know basic arithmetic. Whatever you learn, it’s only taught to you because your mentor (instructor) knows it will have a positive impact on your life later on.
The Main Message
Math is important. Without it, it’s impossible you would even be reading this article.
The key takeaway I would like everyone to get out of this is to appreciate mathematics more. I’m not implying that you need to love math, just that you respect it and study it diligently. Embrace it, learn from it. No matter how annoying, dreadful, or hard it gets, keep pursuing. Appreciate those who have taught you, because mathematics WILL get you somewhere in life.
You never know; you might have a profession in it 10 years from now.
