How Do You Use Math Outside of School: from Cooking to Sports

Kids are very inquisitive. They need to be explained the importance of Math in their daily life at an early age, for them to enjoy doing it instead of doing it without a love for the subject.

In this essay on 'How do you use math outside of school?' we learn about the importance of math in daily life. Math is used by everyone from a cook to a farmer, a carpenter to a doctor, and even an artist or a tailor. Math is important for managing time, budgeting, sports, cooking, driving, home decorating, stitching, and critical thinking, and it forms the base of other subjects. Math helps us to solve daily life problems such as finding the shortest route to reach a destination, calculating discounts, counting repetitions during exercise, keeping track of scores in sports activities, measuring ingredients in cooking, and taking measurements in stitching.

It is pertinent to note the ways in which one experiences mathematical applications in daily life from time one gets up from bed till one goes to bed in the night. Be it a cook or a farmer, a carpenter, a mechanic, a shopkeeper or a doctor, an engineer or a scientist, a musician or a magician, an artist or a tailor, everyone needs math in daily life.

Table of

1. Why is math important in our daily life?

2. Some real-life examples with activities.

Why Is Math Important In Our Daily Life?

Math is very useful in everyday life. Math can help us do many things that are important in our everyday lives. Here are some daily tasks for which math is important:

• Managing time- Keeping a track of time is very important to do all you love to do
• Budgeting- Managing Money, understanding discounts and buying for the best price
• Sports- Score, Time, Strategizing to win
• Cooking – Measuring the ingredients to add to a recipe, kitchen inventory planning
• Exercising and Dieting
• Driving – Distance travelled, shortest route to take to reach a destination
• Home Decorating
• Stitching – Measurements to stitch a dress
• Critical Thinking
• The base of other Subjects

Some Real Life Examples With Activities

1. Managing Time

When we get up in the morning, we see the time of waking to verify whether we have enough time to complete various tasks. (Awareness of time, reading a clock/watch, planning one’s routine.)

2. Budgeting

How much is this shirt or blouse going to cost once the 50% sale is applied? What about once the taxes are added? Do you prefer to gather your things and hope for a great deal on the cash counter? Or know the price before heading there. That takes math knowledge and at least a basic understanding of how percentages work.

3. Exercising and Dieting

We set our routine according to our workout schedule, count the number of repetitions while exercising, etc., just based on math..

4. Sports

Basic knowledge of math also helps keep track of scores for every sports activity. Geometry and trigonometry can help your teens who want to improve their skills in sports. It can help them find the best way to hit a ball, make a basket or run around the track.

5. Cooking

The recipe calls for “3 tablespoons” of salt. You only have a teaspoon or a soup spoon. The recipe calls for “2 cups,” but you only have a quarter cup measuring tool and a half cup measuring tool. How much adds up to “2 ”? You may know the answer. But that’s because you understand math, fractions, and conversions.

6. Driving

Operating a car or motorcycle is ultimately nothing but a series of calculations viz., How many kilometers are needed to reach the destination? How much petrol in the car? How many kilometers per hour am I able to drive? How many kilometers per liter does my car get?

Oh no, I’ve hit a traffic jam, and now my pace has slowed, am I still going to make it to work on time? All of these questions are extremely easily answered with basic math skills.

Task: Calculate the speed of the school bus by using the distance and time of travel.

7. Home Decorating

How many rolls of wallpaper do we need for this wall? What’s the difference between a meter and a square meter? Do we have enough space to fit in your favorite couch? Common questions when you are trying to set up your new space or apartment. Its very important to know these basics before you head to a store. Otherwise, you will end up coming back empty-handed as the sales representative won’t be able to help you without the proper input from your side. You should have fair knowledge of dimensions and units and unit conversions to be able to sail through. It seems fairly simple if you know how to do the math.

8. Stitching

Just home decorating, math is also an essential concept of fashion design. From taking measurements, estimating the quantity and quality of clothes, choosing the color theme, and estimating the cost and profit, to producing cloth according to the needs and tastes of the customers, math is followed at every stage.

9. Critical Thinking

Technically ‘critical thinking’ is not even Math as there are no numbers involved. But knowledge of Math surely increases the ability to think critically. The more math skills you gain, the more you observe the minute details, question the available data, rule out unnecessary data, and analyze it further for your benefit.

10. Based of all other subjects

Though math is itself a unique subject. But, you would be surprised to know that it forms the base for every subject. The subjects like physics, chemistry, economics, history, accountancy, and statistics, in fact; every subject is based upon math. So, next time you say, “I’m not going to study this math subject ever!” remember, this subject will not be going to leave you ever.

Conclusion: 

Math is a tool in our hands to make our life smoother. The more mathematical we are in our approach, the more rational would be our thoughts. It’s time to understand the importance of the subject and enjoy its beauty of it. Math is a medium which should be embraced by everyone from all our walks of life.