5 ways we use maths in real life
#1 DRAWING
We will have to use maths if we want to learn how to become a good artist. When drawing people or objects, learning about proportions is crucial to be able to draw realistic drawings and sketches. Therefore, having a good understanding of the ratio is key to knowing how tall a tree should be in comparison to a person’s height.
If you want to learn about ratio and proportion more, then I would recommend checking out the ratio and proportion videos on the maths mentorship YouTube Channel.
#2 COOKING AND BAKING
I love cooking and baking and have been learning some new recipes recently. To do this I have to utilise my measuring skills and learn about converting between different measuring units. Also, some recipes are made for 4 people, but if we are only cooking for ourselves then we need to be able to use division to divide all the measurements by 4.
Sometimes the recipe might be for 4 people, but we need to make a dish for 10 people, so being able to do more complicated ratio and proportion questions is important so that our cookies, casseroles, and cupcakes come out of the oven tasting amazing!
#3 BUDGETING
Budgeting is an incredibly important skill to develop. In life, we will all have money constraints so being able to live within our means will prevent us from falling into deep financial hardship. When it comes to budgeting, we have to consider our expenses in life and the amount of money we have coming in (our income). So, if we make £10 per hour from our Saturday job and we work for 6 hours each Saturday. Then at the end of every month, we will have roughly £240 in our bank account. This is as we will receive £60 each week from working and there are about 4 Saturdays each month and £60 times 4 is £240.
Okay, so £240 is our income each month. It is important that we don’t spend more than this each month if we want to keep a positive balance. So, let’s assume that we spend £25 on food, £5 on revision materials, and £20 on socialising each week, then we will be spending £50 a week. This will add up to £200 a month. Therefore, each month we will have £40 leftover (as £240 - £200 = £40). With this money, we can save it up and use it later in life for emergencies or for buying more expensive items.
Without a budget, we will not be able to manage our money very well and it may lead us to spend more money than we have. This can lead to us getting into poor financial habits and increase our stress as we need to find a way to pay back the money we owe.
#4 SHOPPING FOR THE BEST DEAL
We all want to get the best value for our money so being able to understand what good and bad deals are, is important. In shops, we may be used to seeing deals such as “2 cakes for the price of 1” or “buy 4 get one free”. Both of these deals sound great but deciding which one is better comes down to the price and volume of the products. If we have an 800g chocolate cake that costs £8 that is on offer for “buy 2 for the price of one” and we have a pack of 10 chocolate cupcakes that weigh 100g each which cost £5 in total but there is a “buy 4 get one free” discount, we need to do some maths to figure out which option will give us the most cake for the least amount of money.
So with the chocolate cake, we can buy 1,600g of cake for £8 with the deal on offer. Whereas, for the chocolate cupcake offer, we will have 5,000g of cake for £20. So, if we divide the weights by the costs, we can figure out how much cake we get per pound we spend. So, with the chocolate cake, we will get 200g of cake per pound, but for the chocolate cupcakes, we will have 250g per pound. Therefore, assuming we like cakes and cupcakes equally and we don’t mind how much cake we buy, we are better off going for the “buy 4 get one free” deal on the chocolate cupcakes.
#5 TIME MANAGEMENT
Time management is such an important skill to master. Just like money, we all have limited time! Being able to plan and organise our time well will help to improve our lives drastically. However, to do this, we need to be good at estimating. For example, we need to know how long it will take us to drive to the cinema, so we don’t miss the movie. It is also important to estimate how long a piece of homework will take so we give ourselves enough time to do it, to a high quality. We will only become good at estimating with practice, so we shouldn’t worry if our estimations are wrong for the first couple of tries. The aim is: over time we will have a better idea of how long things take and so we will be able to take more control of our day and feel productive as well.
SUMMARY
Contrary to popular belief, maths can be incredibly useful and practical to our everyday lives. It is so important that we have a strong basic understanding of maths to manage our time and money. Maybe we can argue that Pythagoras’ theorem doesn’t apply to normal life, but ratios, proportions, estimations, and mathematical operations are necessary to make the most of our resources and produce the best results for others and ourselves.
