Math in careers

[Adam Y.]

Originally Posted by Bill Moore

Q: Why does a farmer need good math skills?
A: Because when they protect their crops -- too little pesticide means they lose more of the crop, too much pesticide means they wasted money on excess spraying, and not following the mathematical instructions on the pesticide label means they can go to jail. Use of pesticides in any manner for which they are not specifically labelled is a crime -- the warning is printed on every label.

Psssstttt... Psssstttt... Not a good example. My grandpa didn't graduate from high school and he was a farmer. Then again he is 90 years old.

[Gurdian]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

\Not a good example. My grandpa didn't graduate from high school and he was a farmer.

My grandfather is also a farmer, and has father before him... There is a lot of trial and error and luck, but also a fair amount of math involved in calculating land size and approximate size of cattle and sale value.

[sdexp]

That makes sense. Our math teacher introduced several calculus problems dealing with ranch optimization and John Wayne. To prevent leaking out the secrets to our school's freshmen and sophomores, I'm afraid I can't mention what the problems exactly are though.

I would say that math is directly applied in careers dealing with computer science, because writing in each language is like learning a new version of math.

[b_mallerd]

Not really....I think programming language are mainly just syntax. The fundamental logic is still the same. Unless you are like jumping language generations...assembly is NOTHING like sql...and so on =D

[MC_Elroy]

Architects use Math!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ComradeNikolai]

Computer science uses math, as without math on a computer, you are limited to... nothing. That's how computers work. A program written without the ability to do calculations can merely take input and give static output. However, the ability to be GOOD at math is not necessary; I am very good at math, whereas my friend is just in Trig, and we're at the exact same level of programming ability; as long as you can reason out the algorithms, high level math is not necessary.

[ManicMechanic]

Thanks for reviving this thread just in time. I have to give a talk in 2 days to 8th graders on why they should care about math and what careers use it.

Anyone who uses a credit card should know how to use math or risk getting rooked. How much does an iPhone cost (not counting monthly fee)?

Cost if paid up front: $199
Cost if paid by credit card, minimum payment: $1192.24
--amortization calculation, principal = $199, minimum monthly payment of $3.97, 23.9% interest (the rate on some store credit cards), 25 years to pay off.

Kind of like the lotto, but probably even more people do it.

[Athleticgirl389]

Well obviously a math teacher requires math lol.
I'm a math major, and that's the first thing people think of when I tell them that - that I want to be a math teacher. I definately do not haha. I want to be a statistician or actuary. Both, obviosuly, require lots of math and knowing how to apply it. Gotta know a bit of everything, and not just math, in order to succeed (so I am finding out haha).

[Bongle]

A bit more off-beat answer is city planners. The GIS software that they use to analyze spatial data requires good knowledge of set theory in order to deduce results.

For example:
Task: Find a suitable site for a new daycare
1. Select all sites in the right zone code.
2. Remove all sites that are within 1000m of a jail
3. Remove all shapes that aren't compact (perimeter / sqrt(area) > 6.0ish)
4. Remove sites that aren't near major roads
... many more steps of elimination ...
5. You will almost certainly end up with several sites that meet all your "hard" criteria like law and bylaw-compliance, so determine a weighting of the attributes of the remaining sites so that you can create a ranking of which sites are best. For instance, one site may require upgrades to the existing building, while another may require the design and construction of a new building. Depending on what your priorities are, one may be preferable to another.

I think though, this is another job where math skills aren't NEEDED, but they certainly help your thinking a lot.

[Carlee10]

The only things I can think of that wouldn't use math are philosophy and religious studies. You would still have to know it, because of everyday life. Maybe if you become a monk or a nun, you would be free of all math.

[ManicMechanic]

Originally Posted by Water Bandit23

The only things I can think of that wouldn't use math are philosophy and religious studies. You would still have to know it, because of everyday life. Maybe if you become a monk or a nun, you would be free of all math.

Actually, math can be infinitely (ha) useful in enhancing one's appreciation for both philosophy and religious studies.

Blaise Pascal, author of Pensees, was both a philosopher and a mathematician/physicist (the Pascal computer language and the metric unit of measure were named after him). In Pascal's Wager, he uses binary logic to demonstrate the reasonableness (though not proof) of belief in God. Basically, there are 2 possibilities: God exists or God doesn't exist.
There are 2 choices of action: believe or don't believe.

The possible outcomes/results based on existence and belief are:


-------------- God exists ----- God doesn't exist
believe------- reward---------no punishment or reward
don't believe-- punishment -----no punishment or reward

If one believes, the possible outcomes are reward or nothing. If one doesn't believe, the possible outcomes are punishment or nothing. Pascal's premise was that if one were making a wager, there is no reason not to believe in a probabilistic sense – one who believes has everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Math can also provide interesting insights in religious studies. For example, Genesis 5:25 (of the Bible) reports that Methuselah was 187 years old when he became the father Lamech, and Lamech was 182 when he became the father of Noah. The Flood came when Noah was 600 years old. If you add 187 + 182 + 600, you get 969, the age of Methuselah at his death. This means that Methuselah died in the year of the flood, and possibly died in the flood itself, implying that he may not have been a very righteous man.

Math may also point to seeming discrepancies in religious records, but with further information, they often work themselves out. For example, Daniel 9:25 reports that it will take 7 sevens (49 years) from the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to its completion, and an addition 62 sevens (434 years) from the completion until the Annointed One is "cut off" (killed).
434 + 49 = 483 years

Historically, it is reported that the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued in 444 B.C. If you conjecture that the Annointed One was Christ, he lived 33 years (dying in 33 A.D.) and adding the years you get:
444 + 33 = 477 years (according to the Roman calendar)

The discrepancy between 477 years and 483 years might seem to indicate that the event described as the "cut off of the Anointed One" is not the death of Christ, unless you take into account that the Roman calendar has 365.24 days/year, but the Jewish calendar (which would have been used in the writing of Daniel) is 360 days. Converting 483 Jewish years:

483 X 360/365.24 = 476.1 years (by Roman calendar). Still not quite 477, but "pretty close," especially since the 444 and 33 years may include fractional increments.

Really, I think there are fun things to discover mathematically in just about everything.

[Carlee10]

I know Pascal from math and chemistry, but I didn't know he was a philosopher, too. Wow, that's education coming back to bite me. I never thought I'd have to think about him again.

"Actually, math can be infinitely (ha) useful in enhancing one's appreciation for both philosophy and religious studies."

I meant above elementary school. All of the math you used wasn't, you know, calculus. But I uderstand your point. I also like your religious mathematical insights into the bible. It makes me actually want to use math!

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Water Bandit23

I know Pascal from math and chemistry, but I didn't know he was a philosopher, too. Wow, that's education coming back to bite me. I never thought I'd have to think about him again.

"Actually, math can be infinitely (ha) useful in enhancing one's appreciation for both philosophy and religious studies."

I meant above elementary school. All of the math you used wasn't, you know, calculus. But I uderstand your point. I also like your religious mathematical insights into the bible. It makes me actually want to use math!

Not only was Pascal a philosopher, so was Galileo and Aristotle.

Kinda funny how math and philosophy go hand-in-hand

[Dmentor]

If you love math then you would like my job. I work on SONAR systems for a living. This is the convergence of graduate level course work in signal processing, detection/estimation theory, array processing, acoustics, multi-target tracking, etc. Needless to say you don't learn all of this overnight! I'm still learning after 15 years... I do algorithmic design so I spend a lot of time with fairly complex math. My engineering friends sometimes laugh at me because I regularly use eigenvalue decomposition and (less frequently) Bessel functions - things they typically never use. I think modern engineering is especially tough since not only is technology rapidly changing but it is enabling historical mathematic approaches that have only been theoretical due to computational load. This causes us to have to not only have to keep up with current research moving forward but also to dig into the past as well.

[Carlee10]

Sigh, I guess this is true. Sad, though. But it makes for great mathematical theories.