How is Maths actually used in real life?!?? (1 Viewer)

[enigma_1]

Firstly sorry for being so stupid but like how?
Like in a job, is your boss going to make maths questions for you to solve?
And like perms and combs are so hard and when you're at work there's not going to be answers to check your c alculations.

And where is parametrics used? And what about circle geometry?

 

[iJimmy]

mostly in engineering, architecture...where calculations/physics is needed.

 

[nerdasdasd]

Don't forget finance , financial services , accounting and statistics (statisticians).

 

[enigma_1]

What about medicine?

 

[enigma_1]

Guysss yahh aint answering the question hahaa like how exactly is maths used? Do you sit there doing maths questions?

 

[OzKo]

Guysss yahh aint answering the question hahaa like how exactly is maths used? Do you sit there doing maths questions?

Pretty much.

You're given like a HSC-like exam every day and your salary is dependent on how you perform.

Yep, that's how it works.

 

[QZP]

One of my relatives had to software engineer traffic lights. It uses calculus (to study the flow of cars from each direction) such that the rate at which the traffic lights change (e.g. red --> green) remains optimal throughout the day and not static. I don't know too much in detail, sorry.

 

[enigma_1]

Oh ok wow exams every day?! YAY I'm defs gonna go in a maths related field!
Wow so after using calculus I wonder where you would needit again..maybe they hire casuals to do different equations.

 

[OzKo]

In all seriousness though, have a look at this:

http://www.maths.usyd.edu.au/u/PS/careers.html

With a very generalised idea of what each of those careers entail, I would deduce that modelling would be a major component of any job which requires mathematical thinking.

 

[asianese]

OzKo was right - errday 4U exam errdayy

 

[braintic]

The answer is that the vast majority of people won't use any of the maths you learn in senior school.

But how much of ANY subject are most people going to actually USE in their career?

English is the most useless, because the senior course is not actually English but Literature Studies. What useful job would involve analysing the intended meaning of an author in a piece of literature?.

History - well its interesting, but unless you are actually an historian how can you actually USE it?

Cooking is useful - but then why strive for a high ATAR just to become a cook?

Maths is useful mainly because it provides the groundwork for understanding science, and science is the most useful of all the disciplines.

But you picked your subjects because you like them didn't you? Other than English where the f...kers don't allow you to drop this most useless of subjects.

 

[fizzbylightning]

The answer is that the vast majority of people won't use any of the maths you learn in senior school.

But how much of ANY subject are most people going to actually USE in their career?

English is the most useless, because the senior course is not actually English but Literature Studies. What useful job would involve analysing the intended meaning of an author in a piece of literature?.

History - well its interesting, but unless you are actually an historian how can you actually USE it?

Cooking is useful - but then why strive for a high ATAR just to become a cook?

Maths is useful mainly because it provides the groundwork for understanding science, and science is the most useful of all the disciplines.

But you picked your subjects because you like them didn't you? Other than English where the f...kers don't allow you to drop this most useless of subjects.

I didn't find English too swell either but you do have to communicate effectively in life post high school. The actual content of what you learn in English is useless but the skills you develop (like everything I imagine in high school) is what prevails. Essays - sustain an argument or point of view backed up with evidence. This and speech presentations are the things that come to mind because persuasion is an important underlying tool in all jobs.

 

[D94]

History - well its interesting, but unless you are actually an historian how can you actually USE it?

Actually quite useful for engineering. Engineering reports are wordy and do require research, referencing, report writing etc. which are all skills learnt in history. Of course it's minor, but still helpful nonetheless. A lot of my engineering cohort don't know how to reference and their sources were academically useless, so doing modern history was useful. There is more to history than the content.

 

[Absolutezero]

Stats and data analysis.

So much.

 

[omgiloverice]

The problem is, apart from 3 unit calculus, and 4 unit maths. The rest of the HSC maths course is essentially a foundation for higher mathematical learning, for example permutations and combinations are used in error detection systems in computers.

In medicine they mostly part an important part in research, for example the spread of disease through an particular area or community. In more micro scale, calculus can be used to calculate: the approximate growth rate of an tumor, and the rate of flow of toxins through the body, and much more.

An example of using parametric's is in bridge cabling, as they hang down in an parabolic function. Like here:

As a matter of a fact this curve can be given by this differential equation:



Where is Kilos per metre and H is the horizontal tension of the cable at the origin. (where is origin is at the middle of the cable.

And I haven't even mentioned actuaries *shivers*

Also if you get into an job such as engineering, you'll have to make up your own maths questions, and solve them amongst a team of people, so you can be confident that most mistakes will be picked up. So if you are going into this field it is a good idea to start becoming mathematically curious, try to get yourself to think outside box and create your own maths questions, and solving them without help from other people.

Anyways you'll probably realise how incredibly useful maths once you completed physical applications of math.

 

[rumbleroar]

Tbh when is maths never used in life

 

[hawkrider]

I didn't find English too swell either but you do have to communicate effectively in life post high school. The actual content of what you learn in English is useless but the skills you develop (like everything I imagine in high school) is what prevails. Essays - sustain an argument or point of view backed up with evidence. This and speech presentations are the things that come to mind because persuasion is an important underlying tool in all jobs.

Exactly. English in its current form may not be useful, but when you study it indirectly, it is. Maybe Literature Studies isn't useful in life, but your writing ability is absolutely essential in terms of constructing essays and speech presentations and expressing your communication skills. People always say to me, "English isn't used at Uni in your degree, so what's the point?" Well, I believe your writing ability is vital in whatever degree you undertake - you could be writing reports, essays etc.

How relevant you find a subject is also quite dependant on what you are interested in and want to do after school.

 

[braintic]

Exactly. English in its current form may not be useful, but when you study it indirectly, it is. Maybe Literature Studies isn't useful in life, but your writing ability is absolutely essential in terms of constructing essays and speech presentations and expressing your communication skills. People always say to me, "English isn't used at Uni in your degree, so what's the point?" Well, I believe your writing ability is vital in whatever degree you undertake - you could be writing reports, essays etc.

How relevant you find a subject is also quite dependant on what you are interested in and want to do after school.

Maybe English has changed since I was at school, but it didn't teach me how to write a report (not senior English anyway). And when I told my teacher I needed help in writing essays he said I should have learned that in junior school. Needless to say I gave up at that point (English didn't have to count towards your HSC in my day) and resorted to sleeping in class and spitballing other kids around the room for the rest of the year. I don't feel that my ability to communicate effectively has suffered as a consequence.

 

[hawkrider]

Maybe English has changed since I was at school, but it didn't teach me how to write a report (not senior English anyway). And when I told my teacher I needed help in writing essays he said I should have learned that in junior school. Needless to say I gave up at that point (English didn't have to count towards your HSC in my day) and resorted to sleeping in class and spitballing other kids around the room for the rest of the year. I don't feel that my ability to communicate effectively has suffered as a consequence.

You do realise the skills we write in essays are essentially transferrable to other mediums? Your teacher is right in saying that you should've learnt about writing essay in junior school - during that period of time, you should've had the meta-language pat down so you wouldn't be in a heap of trouble come year 12. However, I don't blame you for being ill-equipped, as it's probably either the student's fault or the junior course.

 

[seanieg89]

Not that many careers will require you to explicitly be able to use say calculus or trigonometry. But, as others have mentioned, the same is true for every other subject in the HSC. It is the SKILLS rather than the knowledge that will be of use.

The skills you get from essays transfer to skills in explaining a point of view and supporting it with evidence.

Similarly, the skills you get from learning mathematics properly transfer to a great many careers. It is a valuable thing to be able to distill a situation down to its essential components and analyse them logically. You do this sort of thing subconsciously even when you do trivial things like plan your route through a busy shopping centre in a way that won't be horrendously slow and inefficient.

Pretty much every thing we do in life involve some kind of patterns. At an abstract level, mathematics teaches you the skills to be able to understand these patterns.

(Which is why it frustrates me to no end when people reduce HSC maths to memorisation and mimicry. Then it truly is a pointless endeavour after your HSC exam is done and dusted.)