You Use It Everyday!

One of the phrases that makes my husband Lee cringe every time someone hears what he does is "I hate math" or "I never use the math I learned in high school".  He is a math teacher and teaches his favorite subject to (hopefully) the future leaders of our nation.  He hears that phrase from almost everyone; students, parents, strangers, and even some of his fellow teachers.  It honestly drives him up the wall.

So in honor of him, and great math teachers everywhere, I am here to address both of those phrases and silence those that continue to ridicule this great and very useful subject.

First, the phrase "I hate math" is a horrible thing to say to anyone who have dedicated their lives to the subject. Second, you don't understand it.  It is an inherent part of human nature to hate and fear what we don't understand.  How does one stop hating and loose that fear?  You educate yourself about the subject at hand.  One has to  realize that you do math every day of your life and way beyond figuring out how much money is in your bank account.  When you come to a stop at a stoplight, you are using math.  Your brain is calculating the velocity of your vehicle and the amount of pressure your foot has to apply to the brake pedal so that you stop before hitting the car in front of you.  When you make 3 batches of your awesome chocolate chip cookies for the school's bake sale, you are using math by calculating the amounts of each ingredient that you need from the original recipe.

The second phrase, which Lee hates more than the first one, "I never use the math that I learned in high school" or it's cousin, which is often spoken by students "Man, I'm never going to use this".  According to a great site called weusemath.org, a mathematician is considered the best job out of all jobs and the median annual income of one is $94,160.  Not to shabby if I do say so myself.  Now, telling me that other jobs don't really use math is a poor argument.  Below is some of the most popular jobs that I hear from my students that they want to do and what type of math is involved.  Included are links to those job descriptions that offer further explanations on how the math is used in that field.

Animator: College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 &2, Linear Algebra (http://weusemath.org/?career=animator)

Astronaut: College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus 1, 2, & 3, Ordinary Differential Equations, Linear Algebra (http://weusemath.org/?career=astronaut)

Mechanical Engineer: College Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 & 2, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Statistics (http://weusemath.org/?career=mechanical-engineer)

Nuclear Engineer: College Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 & 2, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations, Statistics (http://weusemath.org/?career=nuclear-engineer)

Physician: College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus 1 &2, Linear Algebra, Statistics (http://weusemath.org/?career=physician)

There are many other fields listed on that site and I could spend the next month explaining all the ways that we use math in every job out there, but I think that I have proven my point.  Remember, don't say that you hate math or that you never use it.  If you struggled (or still struggle) with the subject, simply say "I have trouble with math" the next time you talk with a math teacher.  More often than not, they will always be willing to help you become better at it.











(Photo from http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/images/mathslide.jpg)