November 30, 2018

4 Real-World Math Tests Your Teacher Never Told You About

Chances are good that you’re among the countless people that used to sit in your math classes in school and think things like, “I’m never going to use this, so why is it such a big deal?” Most people grew up thinking they would never use the math skills they were picking up in grade school, so you’re certainly not alone. The truth is, though, that math is an important part of your daily life. In fact, math is becoming more important every day as the world becomes more and more technologically advanced.

Here are four real-world math tests your teacher never told you about.

Current and Future Jobs Will Require It

Math has always been more important in the workplace than a lot of people realize. Whether you’re working in a factory, making parts or products to be sold to the masses, or you’re a cashier in a local market, counting and measuring is an important part of your professional life. With the rise in personal and mobile computing, the job market is becoming much more digitized and it’s been predicted that future jobs will almost all require coding skills to varying degrees.

If you don’t know anything about coding, at the very heart of it, it’s abstract mathematics, boolean algebra, logical math, and many other mathematical concepts you’ve likely never heard of before. All that to say, if you plan on getting a job now or in the future, you’re going to have to get comfortable with math on some level.

You Need It When You Shop

This may go without saying, but math is extremely important when you’re shopping, especially if you’re on a budget. You know how much money you have available to spend and you’ve got to make decisions about what to get based on things like an item’s cost, your current running total, and how much money you have left to work with. All of that means you’re going to do a lot of addition, subtraction, and even multiplication on the fly. You’ve likely calculated somewhat complex mathematical computations every time you’ve gone to the store without even realizing it.

It Helps When You’re Gambling

It’s a pretty good guess that, if you’re reading a blog post on this site, you’ve got some sort of interest in gambling. You also likely understand that there’s a bit of math that goes into certain games, like Blackjack. In truth, though, successful gamblers will tell you one of the best ways to do well is to learn to calculate your odds of winning no matter what game you happen to be playing. Gambling odds are never a sure thing but, with a little practice, you can learn to do some simple math on-the-fly and decide whether or not you should bet high, low, or not at all.

You Need It When You Drive

When you’re behind the wheel, you’re likely not thinking about complex mathematics. Or, are you? In reality, driving a car is one of the most math-intensive activities people engage in on a daily basis. You’re comparing your current speed to the posted speed limit. You’re using your starting location and distance to your destination to determine how long it will take you to arrive relative to your current location at any given time. You’re probably also deciding how much farther you can drive based on the fuel remaining in your tank and what you know about your vehicle’s fuel efficiency.

The fact is that math is much more important in your adult life than you ever would have guessed back in your school days. Don’t fight it. Accept the fact that math is everywhere and learn to use it to your advantage!