Research conducted by Dr Tanya Evans of Stanford University indicates that children who know math can recruit certain brain regions more reliably, and have higher gray matter volume in those regions, than those who perform more poorly in math. The brain regions involved in higher math skills in high-performing children were associated with various cognitive tasks involving visual attention and decision-making. While correlation may not imply causation, this study indicates that the same brain regions that help you do math are recruited in decision-making and attentional processes.
To live in a mathematically-driven world and not know math is like walking through an art museum with your eyes closed. Learning and appreciating math can help you appreciate things that you would not otherwise notice about the world.In reality, math is everywhere! Don’t believe me? Read on for some examples of math in nature.
Bees, masters of geometry, use hexagons to build their honeycombs. The Fibonacci sequence, a famous sequence of numbers in mathematics, is found throughout nature: in pinecones, seashells, trees, flowers, and leaves.
The number pi can be observed in the shapes of rivers. The ratio of a river’s length to the distance from the source to its mouth is called the “meandering ratio.” The average meandering ratio of rivers approaches the number pi. It makes sense that the average meandering ratio of rivers approaches pi, because rivers tend to bend into loops, which are circular in nature. The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is also equal to pi.
Not only will your quick mental arithmetic skills help you become known as the smart person who everyone appreciates when the waiter brings the check to your table, your math skills can also help you shop. Knowledge of percentages and how to calculate them quickly can help you save time when shopping at a sale at the mall – for example, to quickly calculate a discounted price, or to determine whether you’ve been correctly charged when paying for a shirt at the store. You don’t need a Ph.D. in math to develop some quick mental arithmetic skills; they can help you in these and other areas of your life in the long run. The laws of mathematics govern everything around us, and without a good understanding of them, one can encounter significant difficulties in life.
The language of Mathematics is mostly equations, numbers, and some Greek letters, but math is understood in the same way virtually all over the world (and who knows, maybe all over the universe)! A math equation doesn’t need to be translated to another language to be understood by someone on the other side of the planet. A mathematical law doesn’t change because someone has a different religion than you or speaks a different language from you. 2 + 2 = 4 in every single place on planet Earth. Pretty cool! The universality of math is one of the many things that makes it such a powerful tool and, indeed, essential life skill.
Practically, every career use math in some way. Obviously, mathematicians and scientists rely on mathematical principles to do the most basic aspects of their work, such as test hypotheses. While scientific careers famously involve math, they are not the only careers to do so. Even operating a cash register requires that one understands basic arithmetic. People working in a factory must be able to do mental arithmetic to keep track of the parts on the assembly line and must, in some cases, manipulate fabrication software utilising geometric properties (such as the dimensions of a part) in order to build their products. Really, any job requires math because you must know how to interpret your paycheques and balance your budget. Studying mathematics not only will develop more engineers and scientists, but also produce more citizens who can learn and think creatively and critically, no matter their career fields. The workforce of tomorrow, in all fields, will demand it.
In summary, math is not only important for success in life; it is all around us. The laws of mathematics are evident throughout the world, including in nature, and the problem-solving skills obtained from completing math homework can help us tackle problems in other areas of life. While many may complain that math is boring or complicated, the truth is that a life devoid of math means that we go around experiencing the world on a much less interesting level than we could.
