Is the mathematics you learn in school really needed in everyday life?

Hi, I'm glad you have found some of the maths you have learned useful.

I suspect that that is true for a lot of people, but that for different people it's different maths that they find they need. While you find iteration useful someone else might really need the Pythagorean Theorem.

What do you think?

That's really interesting - I had no idea. Are there any more applications of mathematics to video games?

I once used eigenvalues to work out the probability of landing on all the squares of a monopoly board. I still lost at my family's Christmas monopoly game though

Is an average not the total of values divided by the number of values? whereas the middle value of a range of values is the Median???? (no Maths genuis here but thought what you said was a bit confusing).

Statistics
Probability
Trigonometry
Graphs!! hate it

Why do you think gcse maths should all be applicable to everyday life?
Just about any subject taught at gcse would not be used in everyday life.

I am a female who lives on my own, so if there is any DIY to be done, it is down to me. Skills in geometry come in very handy for that, especially when it is second nature to do so, because sometimes tasks do not go as planned and you need to be able to improvise... especially when I do not have brute strength to help me out! I do think that there needs to be more focus on proofs and problem solving in schools because those really do help you to think on your feet and accomplish tasks that may not otherwise have been possible without mathsing or sciencing the heck out of it.

You often hear from Americans "why don't we learn how to do taxes", but if they had listened in math(s) they would have realised that they just have to apply basic numeracy skills.

I dont understand the idea that a machine can do it. I know people who dont even know what to put in to a calculator or any sort of programming software. It's like asking someone to do numerical simulations for travelling waves solutions to a particular equation, but without solving some boring equations by hand you dont develop an intuition for what you're doing.

Personally i've found that rather than Mathematics helping with developing logic skills, its been the other way round. Learning logic has come naturally in the course of day to day life and in turn helped to understand what the hell it was they were trying to teach at school.

Nope. You don't need anything more than basic arithmetic in "everyday life". (that is, of those with nontechnical jobs)

You stopped learning the maths you need in everyday life in KS3. The maths you learn beyond that is intended to prepare you for further study.

Is an average not the total of values divided by the number of values? whereas the middle value of a range of values is the Median???? (no Maths genuis here but thought what you said was a bit confusing).

A lot of what I learnt in school has never been used, whether is is Pythagoras, quadratic equations or anything beyond relatively basic maths. A lot of the harder sections of GCSE maths has been replaced by technology.

If I need to work out an angle or the length of a line I can throw it into Sketchup or Vectorworks and it will give me to exact answer. Floor areas and volume can be solved by 3D modelling which is not that hard to do and in modern design I can run in all in 2D and it will give me the 3D solutions.

The old "you won't have a calculator in your pocket" couldn't be further from the truth now. I use my phone calculator just as much as I do excel to do calculations.

The curriculum needs to focus on more practical applications rather than abstract algebra which by in large is utterly useless in the current format. I do use algebra to write Excel and Mail Merge formulas but none of this was ever taught at school, we briefly touched on it at university but not in any meaningful way.

I was one of the children at school that actually enjoyed maths but as the years went by I struggled to see the point as it was never useful maths, just learning for the sake of ticking boxes.

Well, Like the stuff people generally think are useful. I think if a physicist would use it, it should go in. So arithmetic, probability, some basic graph things.

Thanks for sharing. I'm so sorry to hear your initial enjoyment of mathematics was spoiled. I certainly agree with you that we ought to be teaching our students how to work effectively with all the modern phone and computer applications for doing mathematics.

But do we need to have some level of understanding of how the calculations that are carried out work so we can understand their limitations?

Calculations are quite common in RPGs with skills and upgrades which increase damage output as an example typically by a percentage value. However some will be additive and others will be multiplicative. There is also the need to account for game mechanics which can affect your damage per second, damage over time and many other things that I could write at length about.

These calculations are more often done by people who want to "min max" their stats. Min maxing is minimising negative aspects while maximising positive aspects to achieve the most powerful build.

Yes, this is definitely true. I think family members of mine who are architects have used Pythagorean Theorem.

Physics calculations. (bullet trajectories, how things move in the game world, how objects interact with eachother [eg. if two things collide, their trajectories and the speed at which they go off need to be calculated]) Even the logic that goes into producing the graphics would use vectors/linear transformations. Maths in some form is pretty much unavoidable with these things. (which is why any CS degree programme will be decently mathematical)

Wow. I'm learning a lot today! "Min max" sounds like the minimax from game theory where you want to choose the least worst strategy.
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/1998-99/game-theory/Minimax.html

The problem is when people don't consider actual obtained values and say for example 50% is an average score, because it's in the middle, without considering what the actual scores achieved were of whatever is in question.

That is a good question. I do think all GCSEs ought to be teaching you useful and interesting things. But if they are not, does that mean we should be teaching something else that will be useful at school? and if so what would that be?

As a student who's favorite subject was Maths at GCSE, and who is currently taking Maths and Further Maths at A level (I originally wanted to do a maths degree but have since changed to economics), I might be slightly (significantly) biased, but I have never understood people who claim that maths isn't useful. People use basic maths so much in everyday life that I think they don't actually realize they're doing it. Anyone who has even some mild time management skills will know how important maths is when planning your day, whether you're revising for exams and doing homework like I am, to people in senior managerial roles in major businesses, being able to simply use maths to timetable your day is essential, and I think that maths like this is so entwined into our everyday lives we don't even realize it. This is just a very small example.

Of course, you could argue that a significant amount of the maths that we use in the classroom may not be significant in ordinary, everyday situations, for example I probably won't have to differentiate trigonometric functions when I go to the supermarket, but that doesn't mean that this maths isn't compulsory to the running of our everyday lives.

I do think it is worth mentioning that I feel that the current mathematics system at GCSE is not at all perfect, and I do think that both at GCSE and A level there should be a greater amount of financial mathematics included in the curriculum and taught in the classroom, especially as this is both highly applicable to everyday life and can also lead into highly mathematical careers.

Interesting question