Overview of Mathematics

The origins of mathematics go back to antiquity. Counting, commerce, surveying, astronomy, construction, and many other fields of application were already in those days. Even today, no science or human activity can do without mathematics.

Everything that was laid down two thousand years ago in mathematics, all the mathematical laws and theorems that were formulated by the famous mathematicians of those times are relevant at all times.

Until the beginning of the 17th century, mathematics was mainly concerned with numbers and relatively simple geometric figures. By this time it had divided into arithmetic and geometry, and a little later algebra and trigonometry were formed. But the development of mathematics did not stop there either.

As human knowledge and applications of mathematics expanded, people could no longer make do with simple equations, they began to think in many planes and began to invent other, non-existent, but easy-to-live spaces. The formulas of derivatives, trigonometric formulas, and the basics of differentiation and integration appeared in tables of derivatives, and tables of integrals were formed.

Differential equations and various methods of solving them became an indispensable part of the world. And to this day, more and more new disciplines, such as mathematical logic, game theory, information theory, and many others, are distinguished from mathematics.

The sciences are usually divided into natural sciences and humanities. The natural sciences study the world around us (e.g. physics, chemistry, biology) and the humanities study human society (history, philology, and others).

Mathematics, on the other hand, studies itself, so to speak, because it deals not with objects of the real world, but with their ideal (that is, abstract, generalized) models. But because of this, mathematics has not become an abstract science.

On the contrary, thanks to its universality, the laws of mathematics and solutions to mathematical problems are applicable in all fields of human activity. That is why mathematical methods are widely used nowadays in both natural sciences and humanities.

Why is Math important?

In our everyday life, we are so used to mathematics that we do not even notice that we use it all the time. After all, students still ask the question "Why do we need mathematics? Just to go to the store?".

So why do we study fractions, area, perimeter, and volume? Why do we need geometric information? Where does every person need mathematics in everyday life? And what happens if you do not know mathematics at all? It is necessary to consider all types of your activities and prove that you cannot do without elementary math skills in everyday life.

Math matters in everyday life.

Mathematics surrounds us everywhere. Thanks to it we solve many problems in everyday life. Few people thought that mathematics surrounds us from the first days of life.

With age, we solve more and more tasks: "How much food do I need to buy to last for a week? How much do I need to earn to save up for a summer cottage and a trip abroad? How much paint do I need to buy to paint the walls in my bedroom?"

At school we study mathematics from the first grade until graduation, then at university. Every year the course expands and becomes more in-depth, and more and more lessons are related to math and science subjects. In high school, we have algebra and geometry to replace mathematics. Our worldview expands. We can understand and see things that seemed incomprehensible to us before. Mathematical sciences develop our thinking and teach us to reason.

Thus, mathematics is one of the most important achievements of culture and civilization. Without it, the development of technology and knowledge of nature would be unthinkable! Well, you may say, suppose this exact science is extremely important for humanity as a whole, but why do I need it personally? What will it give me?

Let's look at how mathematics can be used in different areas. Below you will find the most common uses of mathematical knowledge in real life.

Math is Good for Your Brain

The human brain finishes forming only at the age of 23. Therefore, the intellectual potential of a teenager can still be influenced. What a teenager regularly does, what he/she watches and listens to is not just his/her choice, but also a way of active self-development. Or vice versa. And mathematics is the best "food for the brain" of a teenager.

Mathematics allows you to develop some important mental qualities, such as analytical, deductive (ability to generalize), critical, and predictive abilities.
Also, this discipline improves abstract thinking, the ability to concentrate, trains memory, and enhances the speed of thinking. That's how much you get:
Improve problem-solving skills.
Speaking in more detail and operating with specific skills, mathematics will help a person to develop such intellectual abilities as:

Ability to generalize.
The ability to analyze difficult life situations, the ability to make the right decision, and to be determined in the face of difficult choices.
Ability to find patterns.
Ability to think and reason logically, formulate thoughts correctly and clearly, to make correct logical conclusions.
Ability to think quickly and make decisions.
Planning skills, ability to keep in mind several consecutive steps.
Conceptual and abstract thinking skills: the ability to consistently and logically build complex concepts or operations.
Every career uses math.
Mathematics is useful in business. Perhaps the profession you are considering as your future will not be associated with calculations, formulas, computer science, or analytics with coding math.

But still, it does not mean that it will always be so. You may want to change your profession. Or you will get so tired of hired work that you decide to organize your own business. The organization of an independent enterprise always requires calculations, forecasting, and analysis. You, as the head of a new business, will need to have fundamental math skills, not everything can be delegated to employees, and their work in any case needs to be monitored.

It is difficult to achieve success without support in the form of mathematical methods of forecasting, modeling, and analysis.

Work is a highly ordered system, the construction of which requires from its creator certain intellectual skills, structured thinking, and the ability to generalize and derive relationships. The study of exact sciences, as you know, develops these daily math skills.
Calculate your daily budget.
Mathematics - in the form of elementary arithmetic - is useful in everyday life for calculating the budget of daily purchases.

They give an understanding of how to make sure that expenses are less than income. Mathematics will also help plan finances for the future and teach your child the value of money from an early age. For example, balancing a bank account is an important life skill that requires you to calculate all expenses in a focused way.

Math skills will also help you make purchases. Knowing percentages and how to calculate them quickly can help you save time during sales at the mall. For example, to quickly calculate a discount or determine if you received the correct receipt.
More advanced math (functions and compound interest) is needed if you are estimating the cost of a loan, or lease, or deciding where to invest your spare cash.

Nowadays, you can solve all these and many other tasks yourself. And if you want to make life easier, there are calculators in smartphones, and on the Internet, App Store, and Google Play - sites and applications for calculating finances.

Hospitals
Human life at the earliest stage of its development can be seen in utero using ultrasound: When the fetus is only slightly larger than a bean, it can be visualized and the heartbeat can be heard.

Did you have a bad fall? Medical imaging can be used to identify any fractures with an X-ray developed using mathematics or an MRI scan.

Practical applications of mathematics are used in oncology to understand cell mutation and develop treatments that help save many lives.

To combat disease and injury, statisticians analyze the results of studies conducted using volunteers to identify patterns to advance research into new drugs.
With these few examples, we can see the role of mathematics in health.

In construction work
Basic mathematical knowledge in today's construction jobs, like basic algebra practice, geometry, trigonometry or statistics, and physics, is essential to success on the job. Until workers understand the advanced math skills used in the construction sector, they will remain unable to meet the needs of this fast-growing industry.
The construction industry is filled with people with all kinds of experience and training. Anyone interested in construction must be able to work in a team and be well-versed in mathematics to succeed in this field.

In all curricula, activity goals are represented by rigorous mathematical concepts and applications.
For example:
carpentry - scale factor, constant height lines, angle measurements and conversions, calculations with decimals and fractions, conversion of distance and direction to latitudes and deviations;
construction technology - unit conversion, Pythagoras' theorem, sampling methods, right triangle trigonometry, cylinder volume;
object location - angles and geometric figures; degrees and square roots; unit conversions for lengths, areas, and volumes; interpretation of drawings;
project supervision - histograms, network diagrams, performance measures.

Computer software
Most modern cryptography and encryption programs use similar mathematical methods of thinking, which ensures the reliability and protection of certificates, keys, payments, and other data.
Today's modern 1C: Enterprise program fully implements all the functions of mathematical and economic processes. No accounting and economic software could exist without the laws of mathematics because they are based on all economic processes, calculations, and other operations.

Thus, we can draw the following conclusion:
All modern computer programs are based on the fundamental basis of mathematical processes;
All modern methods of cryptography and encryption use mathematical laws;
All modern algorithms are based on mathematical and logical styles of thinking, which are also rooted in mathematical processes;
Without mathematics, there would be no programming at all, because computers, home appliances, electronic equipment, etc. "understands" the programming language, the conversion of commands in which the same mathematical processes are carried out.

Manufacturing companies
What is mathematics for in manufacturing?
Some calculations require the mastery of geometric measurement techniques, to understand the information that is presented in the form of tables, charts, and graphs, schemes of algorithms for various tasks.
Mathematics itself is the embodiment of natural order and nothing is surprising in the fact that it organizes your mind. And without this notorious logic in the head, a person is not able to make correct logical conclusions, to compare concepts of different kinds, he loses the ability to healthy analysis and reasoning.

Solution of problems
Barbara Oakley, Ph.D., brain stem cell researcher and author of Think Like a Mathematician, emphasizes:
"Math gets rid of 'magical thinking-we strive to get to the bottom of things and don't rely on chance and higher powers.
The more difficult the mathematical problems become, the more skills are required to solve them. One learns to reason, build sequences, think through algorithms, to juggle several concepts at once, and these daily uses of mathematics in life become a habit.

Thanks to math, we get rid of bad habits:
We won't speculate, but operate only with precise terms;
Not just mechanically memorizing information and rules, but evaluating it, analyzing, and reflecting to understand and absorb the new material, the new lesson of life.

Marketing
Mathematics is a tool. The level at which you know it determines the level of your abilities. Some people just need to do school arithmetic. Most people need basic statistics. Market stars use both statistics and mathematical analysis.
Let's look at an example: you manage contextual advertising in an online auto parts store.
At the basic level, you just pick up a list of keywords, like "auto parts buy cheap," write a few ads, run them, and once a month, give the management report, "we spent so much, earned so much. Anyone can do it.

After a while, you begin to wonder about its effectiveness. You wonder which ads work better than others, and how to maximize the number of orders for a given budget. You need to be able to properly plan the experiment and analyze and interpret its results.
You take it up another notch. You notice that if you start paying more per click, you'll get more customers, but you'll earn less per customer because your margins will drop.
Thus, a competent marketer just needs math. Your knowledge helps you in your career.

What are the Benefits of Mathematics?

Today we do not know a single area of human activity that does not require mathematics. Without it, no new discovery, no invention works, no enterprise or government functions, hence the range of all those areas where mathematics is needed is quite broad.

But what are the advantages of this science?

Let's summarize:

1. Mathematics develops thinking.

2. High-level math classes train memory.

3. Math builds character.

4. Math helps with music.

5. Math helps you excel in the humanities.

6. Mathematics develops skills for solving everyday problems.

7. Mathematics - the basis of a successful career.

8. Solving math problems develop psychological resilience.

These, of course, are not all the reasons to do math and other sciences in general. Science is an integral part of any person's development and activities just as much as friendship, family, sports, health, work, and so on.

The golden rule - everything is good in moderation, the destiny of a harmoniously developed mind, universality at the most basic level! All together, books, and mathematics! In your specialization, you must be a professional and a narrow specialist, an expert in your business. But as for your basic erudition and knowledge, there should be a little bit of everything.

Why is Math Important for Students?

According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, adolescents who stopped studying mathematics showed greater problems compared to their peers who continued to study mathematics in terms of brain development and cognitive function.

133 students aged 14-18 took part in the experiment conducted by researchers from the Department of Experimental Psychology at Oxford University. Unlike most countries in the world, in the UK 16-year-old students can decide to stop studying mathematics. This situation allowed the team to investigate whether this specific lack of topics in mathematics class education in students from similar backgrounds could affect brain development and cognition.
The study found that students who did not study mathematics had lower amounts of an important brain plasticity chemical (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in key brain regions that are involved in many important cognitive functions, including reasoning, problem-solving, logic, memory, and learning. Based on the number of brain chemicals found in each student, the researchers were able to distinguish between adolescents who had or had not studied math, regardless of their cognitive abilities.

So basic math skills are associated with a number of benefits, including employment, socioeconomic status, and mental and physical health. Adolescence is an important period in life that is associated with important changes in the brain and cognitive function. Unfortunately, the possibility of dropping out of mathematics at this age seems to lead to a gap between adolescents who drop out of mathematics compared to those who continue.

If 10-15 years ago learning foreign languages was considered promising, now fluency in several languages is not surprising. Now professional demand largely depends on the understanding of technology, the ability to think abstractly, and the ability to solve non-standard problems.

How to Prepare for the Final Exam

Any exam is always an extreme situation that goes hand in hand with tension and excitement. That is why acquaintance with information from the field of stress psychology and ways to relieve internal tension will certainly give you a self-help tool during the preparation and passing of exams.

Absolutely all people without exception can control their behavior in a stressful situation. Accordingly, you, preparing for or passing an exam, will be able to cope with your anxiety and tension, provided you become a skilled user of this self-help tool. It is important to clearly understand that a lot depends only on you.

But where to start preparing? With the simplest! Tell yourself - I know! After all, you know something. Determine what is easy for you, what is worth repeating, and what needs to be learned. And the following life hacks will help you organize effective work:

1. Arrange a comfortable workplace and remove all unnecessary things, especially gadgets. This will allow you to focus on learning and eliminate the temptation to look at social networks or check;

2. Don't look for answers on the Internet. And do not buy a lot of books and manuals. It is better to limit yourself to a textbook, notes, and a quality reference book;

3. Work without a calculator. The skill of quick counting will allow you to allocate more time for solving complex problems and checking answers;

4. Read the tasks carefully. Correct understanding of the content of the task will save you from many small mistakes;

5. Prepare together with your companion. Joint performance of test tasks will help not only to better understand and remember the method of solution but also to relieve psychological stress;

6. Try to enroll in online courses. Thanks to them, you can repeat complex elementary math topics and learn more than the program provides.

7. Have a rest. Adherence to the regime walks in the fresh air, favorite hobbies, and communication with friends is a prerequisite for successful preparation.

Interesting conclusions follow from our advice: good preparation is not only hundreds of hours of study and friendship with piles of textbooks but, first of all, friendship with rest, a good mood, and proper self-organization.

Many people are afraid of exams, but it is possible to pass them. The main thing is not to panic, clearly define the program and methodically, in small steps, move towards the goal every day.

Summarizing the above, there are two main components of effective preparation. This is purposefulness, which consists of unconditional adherence to a pre-drawn plan and serious study of each exam question, and a good mood, which is easy to maintain in a comfortable environment for study and rest.

Does your child need help with math?

Contact Kiddy School and our dedicated teachers will be happy to assist: hello@kiddyschool.online, 240 747 7755.