Where Would You Be in a World Without Math?

When you look back on your school days, there’s one memory that many people can relate to; the intense dread for Mathematics. The subject often caused sleepless nights, hours memorising formulas, frustration trying to solve equations, and certainly tested your patience. And throughout this love-hate relationship, you (like many others) vowed that once you finish school, you’ll NEVER use math! But the reality today is far from what you had decided.
If you pause and look deeper, you will realise that a life without maths is practically impossible. Not quite convinced? Well, this Maths Day, celebrated on July 8, set aside your feelings and #DiscoverMore just what makes it essential to routine life.

Cooking

Whether you are good at it or not, cooking is an essential life skill, and it often requires math, especially for baking. When you are cooking, measuring the quantity of the ingredients you are using is necessary to ensure your dish comes out as a success. Arithmetic skills can also come in handy to cook the right amount of food; say a gravy that will last you two days or five meals. Besides, numbers play a crucial role when you have to add or reduce ingredients in specific proportions with an aim to increase or decrease the quantity of dish without ruining it.

Driving

There is no denying that road trips are exciting. But when it comes to planning them, you have to consider how many hours it will take to reach a destination, the number of stops you will have to make, estimate how much fuel your Ford EcoSport will need. All that subtracting, dividing and multiplying is basic math that helps you plan a successful road trip. Besides, even your daily commute might require simple calculations like how much fuel to fill and at what frequency (once or twice a week). You can also go as far as saying that you rely on geometry to figure out correct angles while parking your car.

Sports

Take away the numbers from any of your favourite sports – football, cricket, tennis and others – and the game would cease to make any sense! For instance, you use math to estimate how many points your favourite team needs to top a league table or how many runs the team has to score, per ball, to win a game. Even while tracking the average performance of a team or player, such as their run rate, you use math. Additionally, the amount of power to out into kicking a football and directing it towards the goal is another instance where sports without math would just be a mindless game.

Budgeting and Shopping

Before you enter a mall or log onto a website, you have a fair idea of what you want and what your budget is. For instance, if you are buying groceries, you decide the quantity depending on the duration for which you need it; one week or a month. You also use math to ascertain the quantity of groceries that will suffice your family for the month or so. And even while applying discounts or calculating the interest percentage on your EMI purchases, math is always in the picture, helping you budget, spend and maintain your finances.

Running a Home and Family

Finally, let’s talk about how math helps us in family matters. Running a home successfully and taking care of your family requires money management, strategic decision-making and a lot of love. Putting away a certain percentage of your income into savings, budgeting expenses and sticking to them, building your investment portfolio and planning finances to meet long-term goals are all things you do as a responsible adult. Besides, to fulfil certain family responsibilities like paying for medical emergencies, funding your child’s education, building a house, organising a wedding etc. you need to figure out your finances without letting it impact your lifestyle, and they all require math. Therefore, it’s safe to say that math can make or break your life!

Math is that frenemy that you simply can’t do without! As painful as it may have been in school, today it assists you in more ways than you expected. So, the next time you hear your child complain about how learning math is a waste of time, smile and tell them that one day they, too, will learn to appreciate numbers the way that you do now.