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How can more maths be applied to the everyday lives of people? I think it can be, but I struggle to come up with examples. For starters, I think we have to do

by Tichy 15y ago

How can more maths be applied to the everyday lives of people? I think it can be, but I struggle to come up with examples. For starters, I think we have to do some maths ourselves, like evaluating investments. No outsiders can be trusted to make the best decisions for us. Maybe if the "collect data about yourself" movement takes off, there will be more opportunities to optimize our own lives with maths :-/

mappu 15y ago
I think there's a problem with thinking about it as just "maths". Of course ordinary people aren't going to need multivariate calculus every other day of the week, and some topics are deservedly esoteric. Arithmetic is used by everyone every day. Statistics is used by a lot of people too. Computer science is an oddly named branch of mathematics. "Mathematics" is a very broad field, although the term is easily misunderstood. It's very easy to think of real-world applications for game theory, graph theory and cryptography. For instance, considering everyone's position in a business deal, or fuzzy optimisation of critical paths when you cook dinner.
- lurker19 15y ago
  If probability and statistics replaced calculus as the high school capstone class, this country would be a much better place.
ordinary 15y ago
I don't think math needs to be relevant to people's daily lives to be interesting. It just needs to be interesting, not pre-chewed a hundred times and then rehashed another hundred times. If you haven't already, I heartily recommend Lockhart's Lament, which makes the above point (and others) much more eloquently than I ever could: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf
- Tichy 15y ago
  I've certainly always approached maths as a game, but even that does not guarantee that everybody would enjoy it. If chess was a mandatory subject in school, lots of people would probably still resent having to learn it. On the other hand I think many people are doing algorithmic and mathematical things on a daily basis (like cooking), yet they would claim that they have no idea about maths and avoid it like the plague.

by Tichy 15y ago

mappu 15y ago

I think there's a problem with thinking about it as just "maths". Of course ordinary people aren't going to need multivariate calculus every other day of the week, and some topics are deservedly esoteric. Arithmetic is used by everyone every day. Statistics is used by a lot of people too. Computer science is an oddly named branch of mathematics. "Mathematics" is a very broad field, although the term is easily misunderstood. It's very easy to think of real-world applications for game theory, graph theory and cryptography. For instance, considering everyone's position in a business deal, or fuzzy optimisation of critical paths when you cook dinner.

lurker19 15y ago
If probability and statistics replaced calculus as the high school capstone class, this country would be a much better place.

ordinary 15y ago

I don't think math needs to be relevant to people's daily lives to be interesting. It just needs to be interesting, not pre-chewed a hundred times and then rehashed another hundred times. If you haven't already, I heartily recommend Lockhart's Lament, which makes the above point (and others) much more eloquently than I ever could: http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Tichy 15y ago
I've certainly always approached maths as a game, but even that does not guarantee that everybody would enjoy it. If chess was a mandatory subject in school, lots of people would probably still resent having to learn it. On the other hand I think many people are doing algorithmic and mathematical things on a daily basis (like cooking), yet they would claim that they have no idea about maths and avoid it like the plague.