When you’re going through school, there are plenty of opportunities to use math. However, most students wonder if they’ll ever use math once they leave school. You might be surprised to find that math is an integral part of life, and you probably use it more often than you realize. In fact, here are 11 ways you use it all the time.
1. Leaving Tips
The standard tip amount when dining out is 15 percent. How could you calculate how much to leave behind without math? You should be thanking your fourth-grade teacher daily for showing you how to find a percentage of a number value.
2. Budgeting
One of the biggest applications of math is budgeting. Most everyone makes and spends money every day. Learning what to do with that money and how to keep it under control keeps you financially secure.
3. Grocery Deals
Grocery stores try to trick you into spending more money by pricing items with lesser quantities the same as items with greater quantities. However, if you know simple math, you can figure out the best deals by dividing the cost by the number of ounces or grams in a package. It’s the best way to save on grocery shopping, and people do it all the time.
4. Cooking
Math plays a vital role in the kitchen. It’s used to measure ingredients, half recipes, convert from metric to standard, calculate cooking time, recognize ratios and proportions, and more. The best cooks know how to use math to their advantage.
5. Technology
All of your devices, from your television to your phone, require math to work properly. The internet, electricity, and other factors that support your technology also require math to operate. Though basic math is involved in this operation, it’s mostly trigonometry, physics, and calculus that make your gadgets work. You may not be the one crunching the numbers every day, but you’re probably very grateful for the person who actually paid attention in calculus.
IMAGE: PEXELS
6. Home Decorating
Whether you’re hanging pictures or knocking down a wall, you better know how to measure and do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You need to measure placement, figure out how much material to buy, compare your plans with the blueprint, and more.
7. Traveling
You’ll do a lot of math when traveling, starting with budgeting for the trip. There’s also calculating fuel usage, time planning, distance estimations, and more. You probably do most of these calculations subconsciously, but it will save you from being stranded without gas or miscalculating the time needed for travel.
8. Scheduling
You would be late for absolutely everything if you hadn’t internalized basic addition and subtraction. You can pretty easy schedule every minute of your day by knowing how many hours are in the day and calculating how long it will take you to do everything on your list.
9. Checking Receipts
You’ve probably been at the checkout counter when the cashier states a higher sum owed than expected. It’s not uncommon for mistakes to be made at checkout. Cashiers are only human, and it’s always wise to check receipts after a transaction. You can often catch mistakes and overcharges with simple math.
10. Exercise And Health
Looking to lose a little weight or bulk up this summer? Simple calculations on body mass index, calorie intake, and other metrics are important for achieving your goals. It’s also good for tracking progress, counting mileage, lifting weights, and other basics.
11. Arts And Crafts
It’s not uncommon for creative minded individuals to hate math. However, they use it every day. Dancers, sculptors, painters, and more use counting and addition to create harmony and symmetry in their artworks.
When you stop to think about it, you can probably come up with even more occasions for using math. Most people don’t even realize they’re using it, but it’s always there. Now might be a good time to write a thank you note to your high school math teachers.
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11 Ways You Use Math Every Single Day Of Your Life
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