Why do we learn all this math in school when we'll never use most of it in real life?
468396
Greetings,\n\nI use fractions nearly every day of my life.  I find the pythgorean (sp?) theorum useful to get a rough idea in my head of how tall things are.  I convert grams to ounces and kg to lbs on a daily basis as well.\n\nYou will use the math, you simply don't realize it.\n\nThe most important math formula I learned in algebra was\n\nx/y = a/b It's useful for conversions of all types.\n\n-matt
619394
Math is needed for lots of things!\nDo your homework!\n\nhttp://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.why.math.html\nThere are actually thousands of different jobs that require some knowledge of mathematics. Here are more than 30 firsthand accounts from Mathematicians at Work telling what some college math majors are doing, from an Air Traffic Control Systems Analyst and a Lawyer to a Data Capture Facility Troubleshooter on the Hubble space telescope.\n\nExactly How Is Math Used In Technology?, from the Mathematics Department of the British Columbia Institute of Technology, provides examples of math uses for biomedical engineering, food technology, building technology, chemical sciences, civil and structural engineering, graphics and computer-aided drawing (CAD), electronics, environmental health, mechanical engineering, mining technology, nuclear medicine, occupational health, petroleum technology, prosthetics, forestry and wildlife, robotics, and surveying.
483592
You use math everyday
886096
because its very important not only that but your teacher can help you threw your life and your skill that you learned in school can also help you EX. MATH: WHEN YOUR AT THE STORE YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO COUNT SO THEY DONT CHEAT YOU OUT OF YOUR MONEY
96834
Honestly - it is not.  The deal with math is that you have to take the time to work through problems so that you can see different applications of what you learn and get more experience solving them.  Like most things, practice makes perfect!
682501
I like math class, I'm really good at math, and I know that it benefits everyone, but I'm not going to spend my free time memorizing the digits of pi or phi. I can do trigonometry, but on vacations, I will not work problems for fun. I think everyone should get at least an Algebra 2 level of math mastered.
827639
Most high schoolers aren't getting elementary school arithmetic. You'll see that when you get to high school... It is a great thing that kids in grade school are having the standards raised. The only people who have a strong opposition to it at all are the kids like yourself who can't or don't understand why educational values are making a comeback after all this time, and you guys end up with harder work than you're used to. When you grow up, you'll understand why they did it to ya, and you'll be grateful.
494097
Yes math is the single subject that gets used throughout your life. Even if you go on to do things that may seem unrelated to math like, become a sportsman, a lawyer etc., you continue to require mathematical skills.
898785
It is the most used in daily life. Lots of algebra and other higher maths are not used daily by the ave. person but ave is.
885741
Do we lose our math skills if we don't use them?\n\nH3LL YES, WE DO! Graw! It's durned frustrating too!\n\n1) Multipications tables? To be quite sadly honest with you there are huge chunks of it that are gone. Just plain ***gone***. I worked in opperational nuclear power as an engineering labrotory techitian for ten years and I can not with any degree of confidence tell you what seven times eight is. No need too... trusty calculator will tell me.\n\n2) No... I have managed too hang on too this. But then again... I use it!\n\n3) ***some of it*** has managed too stick. A few months ago I had too look up some very basic trig info on the net too work out the spacing for some holes I had too drill on an round access cover. That was a touch more than embarassing. "Yeah. Can't get this done today because ... um.... I don't have the right drill bit... yeah... drill bit.... that's the ticket."\n\nSo too reitterate... Yeah. Use it or lose it.
165029
And I assume that you know that after college you will never ever again use that worthless knowledge.  What scientist is going to be doing long hand algebra when they have a computer?  Ask your teacher who uses it on a daily basis and what percentage of the population that is.  Would you even want to as a job choice?  It's really a shame that schools require such nonsense.
1032355
Most likely, but the question remains: Why would I??!!  What are YOU gonna learn if someone else does your work for you?  Nothing.  I remember in my early college days, in my math class, how my "co-students" or whatever you call your "classmates", would marvel at how I never did my homework till class that day, and when we were asked to go to the board and do one of our homework problems, I just went up there with my book instead of any homework papers, read the problem from the book, and solved it in a matter of seconds.  And I got straight "A's" in that class.  Was I "extra-smart"?  Hell no!!  Did I "love math"?  You've got to be kidding!!  Did I have ONE, STERN FATHER at home who made sure I learned my math.  COUNT  ON  IT !!  I've thanked him thousands of times for the enormous amount of time and energy he took to make me learn simple arithmetic back in the summer after my 6th grade, and math was so much easier ever since.  And now he's dead.  He died last year after a long and good life.  And for years now I've told people who was responsible for my very quick ability to do math in my head, "on demand", or "at the spur of the moment".  I love that "old man" that I so often hated when I was a kid.  So, do your own homework.  Put your head to the grindstone as the old phrase says.  Buckle down, is another favorite phrase I often heard.  You know how to do it.  You're just being too damn lazy to do it yourself.  Get on with it!!  You'll love yourself all the more later on because you didn't skip out on the task.  And maybe you'll invent some new computer years later, or discover a new star or constellation through one of those magnificent telescopes where math is still required because you can't actually see the star, only the unusual movement of those around it, and only math will give you the answer.  Or maybe you'll just marvel other shoppers and the cashier or your kids some time from now when you don't need one of those damn computer-cashregisters to figure out how much change you get back, or can balance your check book without an extra piece of paper to do your arithmetic on.  Go to it !!  God Bless you!!
410752
Because we need a foundation, and exposure to different things if we're ever going to build up some structure of intelligence and understanding of the world. We all use math, biology, english, chemistry, physics, and dozens of other things every day in our lives. Some of us are just not aware we are doing it. And can't see the relation between what we learned, and what is happening.\n\nThere may be no obvious connection at all times, but it is there. Just leave your mind open for now. How can you like or dislike something you've never experienced or been exposed to? Is it better to have had the experience, and then made up your mind on your own? Ignorance may be bliss, but I assure you that a lifetime of ignorance of things leads to a very limited understanding of the world.
473117
In order for math to be interesting to you, you should make it part of you, and part of your life. you would have to use it in your every day life basis. don't use it like when you have to do your homework or practice for SAT, but use it like when you are eating, look for what is the percentage of each category of food you are eating, make equation about it, and you will practice even without knowing. like if you playing cards or marbles, or dices, whatever you are doing, just make it mathematically, and once you do that, math is going to be part of your basic life and it is going to be fun for you, you understand it more and more, cause sometimes this is what i usually do.
570385
Algebra is needed for SO many things! Recipes, budgeting you name it. It teaches problem solving. Geometry is good to shape your mind to think logically. I actually took geometry twice out of my own free will because I loved proving the angles were equal or whatever. My mind was never so sharp. Trig, well I actually haven't found a use for that yet....
941432
If someone GIVES you the answers, you will never learn math.  If you don't know math, how will you know if your grocery bill is right or the change you get from the cashier is right.  \n\nHelp in understanding math is one thing, giving you the answers is cheating you.
223978
It depends on YOU and what you do with it.\n\nThe human race got along quite nicely without algebra or complex mathematics for countless generations.  Yet they died when they were forty and they (mostly) spent thier lives in gruesome toil and mind numbing boredom.  \n\nAlgebra and other mathematics (in my opinion) are almost worthless without apllication.  PHYSICS is the class you want...its the class where you "stick" mathematics on the real world. (I just so happen to teach Physics & Chemistry)\n\nWithout mathematics, you wouldnt have the scientific advances that your are so used to today.  Think of it...almost everything around you is engineered (except possibly the air your breathe).  Anything that has to be engineered MUST be mathemetized.  Think of the computer drafting, the physics calculations and the economic analysis that is required to bring a product to you (I-Pods, water you drink, Toilet Paper...ect)\n\nYes, You can happily spend your life without Algebra or the other Mathematical disciplines; but you will be powerless to understand (and CONTROL) the modern engineered world that you live in.\n\nRember this: Mathematics is the backbone of Science and Engineering.  You may not see this yet, but its true.  Without it, we would not have any of the power we have to live longer and effect change in our world.