Math in careers

[Not2B]

My wife is in advertising, and uses a scary amount of math. They have to know how to target you and beat down your defenses, so that you buy that hamburger while driving that car while wearing those designer jeans to your favorite store.

Almost everyone uses math - some people may not even know they are using math. If you spend money, you understand SOME math... It's all relative.

Here's a saying that my Dad taught me...
The Lotto - A tax on people who don't understand math.

[Andrew Blair]

Well, I definently agree that everyone has to use math, probably more than they know, to get by every day. In every career. So, lets try and find the career that requires the least amount of math. I'm thinking Bachelors and above only.

My arguement would be an english or literature major. Probably very little math involved in that. Or maybe not! Whether I hated math or not(I don't by the way), theres no way I could analyze literature for the rest of my life!

[Warren Boudreau]

I have had this argument with one of my older brothers for years. He swears that he doesn't use math in his job and sees no need to ever use math more complicated than what is needed for balancing his checkbook.

The ironic part is that he wrote his own program to be able to estimate project costs for his electrical installation company.

I just sit back and grin.

[nocentbystander]

I suppose I haven't thought very much about it, but yes, I agree that math is definitely a part of every job. Being involved in a youth orchestra, I see that math is VERY present in practically all musical jobs- especially fractions! I'm also pretty sure that some english major out there could tell you how they use math in their job, although the only thing I can think of is poetry meters and lines, but that hardly even counts as math.

[Ali Ahmed]

Since I'm getting my medical degree right now I'll talk about the medical aspect. We use formulas to figure out the filtration rate of urine in your kidneys, for example. There also many different formulas to figure out different values of substances in your blood. It's not complicated stuff but its there.

[sciencenerd]

I believe that while math is necessary for some jobs, there are definitely some which do not require much of a working knowledge. For example my English/History teacher last year was hopelessly mathematically incompetent, and you would never know except for the times when she tried to figure out exactly how far apart two events were in history. Then it came to the surface, she would usually resort to having us, her students, do it for her.

Now, you could turn this argument around and say that she did need math for her job to figure the dates out and such, but she obviously didn't know any. Since she was still a very good teacher, and I learned a lot from that class, it seems to me that she really didn't need it. Perhaps it would be helpful, but for 28 years now she's been teaching without it and doing fine.

[TimCraig]

Originally Posted by sciencenerd

Now, you could turn this argument around and say that she did need math for her job to figure the dates out and such, but she obviously didn't know any. Since she was still a very good teacher, and I learned a lot from that class, it seems to me that she really didn't need it. Perhaps it would be helpful, but for 28 years now she's been teaching without it and doing fine.

Indeed. Possibly if she could do simple mathematics, she could enrichen her cirriculum even more. Or, on the other hand, since she can't do simple arithmetic, you might question her other reasoning capabilities.

[sciencenerd]

Originally Posted by TimCraig

Indeed. Possibly if she could do simple mathematics, she could enrichen her cirriculum even more. Or, on the other hand, since she can't do simple arithmetic, you might question her other reasoning capabilities.

I agree that basic math would no doubt have been helpful to her in all aspects of life, including her career, but it was, as the evidence shows, not necessary. This was all I was trying to say.

Knowing this teacher for an entire year, it soon became obvious her other logical facilities were quite honed. She could debate anything, with whatever information she had. This teacher's memory and verbal processing were both easily above average, I don't think anyone who knew her could question her reasoning capabilities.

[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.