Why do we need to learn math?
"Why do high school students need to learn math? I mean, we don't
use math all that much in English, so why learn it when we already
know how to balance our checkbooks?"
You might be surprised at how many people need math in their lives.
Math is useful for a lot more than balancing your checkbook!
Jen Peck, Karen Rosser, and Carol Pifer, Math and Education students
at the University of Richmond, have put together a series of Web pages
called
"What Good is Math?" talking about the connections between
mathematics and art, calculating grades, cooking, shopping, sports, and
travel:
See also Math in
Daily Life  , from Annenberg/CPB: How do numbers
affect everyday decisions?
There are actually thousands of different jobs that require some
knowledge of mathematics. Here are more than 30 firsthand accounts from
Mathematicians at Work
telling what some college math majors are doing, from an Air Traffic
Control Systems Analyst and a Lawyer to a Data Capture Facility
Troubleshooter on the Hubble space telescope.
Exactly How Is Math
Used In Technology?, from the Mathematics Department of the British
Columbia Institute of Technology, provides examples of math uses for
biomedical engineering, food technology, building technology, chemical
sciences, civil and structural engineering, graphics and computer-aided
drawing (CAD), electronics, environmental health, mechanical
engineering, mining technology, nuclear medicine, occupational health,
petroleum technology, prosthetics, forestry and wildlife, robotics, and
surveying.
Examining How
Mathematics is Used in the Workplace, by Annie and John Selden for
the Mathematical Association of America's Teaching and Learning Research
Sampler, provides abstracts of studies on how much mathematics is used
in various occupations: Mathematics in Automobile Production;
Proportional Reasoning by Nurses; Modeling the Mathematics of Banking;
Mathematical Models as Seen by Biologists; and How do Scientists
Interpret Graphs?
From the Dr. Math Archives
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