Do you use math in your job?

[dwarfie76]

How can doing maths 'make you smarter'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not that it makes you smarter. But developing your knowledge of the appropriate branches of maths to what you hope to do in life will make your working life easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It might increase your knowledge in that field, but it can't raise someone's intelligence.

 

 

 

It depends on how you're measuring "intelligence". Standard IQ tests have a reasonable maths component to them. And if you're referring to general competency in life, then maths is applicable in a wide variety of circumstances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also by choosing it as an option at any stage you are missing out on something else that may be more useful to you.

 

 

 

Again it depends entirely on what you want to do in life. Plenty of careers don't really need much beyond gradeschool arithmetic. The hardest maths most doctors need is working out what dosage of a particular drug to give a patient based on their body weight. However, there are also plenty of careers where a thorough understanding of some branches of mathematics are highly advantageous if not downright essential. Industrial chemists, engineers, electronics technicians, pilots, architects etc. Certainly choose the subjects at school that best suit your chosen career path. But it's also important not to specialise too early in life.

[Anesthesia]

dwarfie76, my point was that it does not increase your mental faculties - only furnishes you with more knowledge in that field. I was just replying to MyPurpleCrayon's post saying that it will 'make you smarter'.

[dwarfie76]

dwarfie76, my point was that it does not increase your mental faculties - only furnishes you with more knowledge in that field. I was just replying to MyPurpleCrayon's post saying that it will 'make you smarter'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's fine. I disagreed with the content of your post, so I posted a reply. If you would prefer your communiques be responded to by only a limited set of people you might want to either:

 

 

 

a) make a list of the people allowed to reply to your post at the end, or,

 

 

 

B) avail yourself of the private messaging facility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At any rate, your point is flawed. Like any other skill, practising mathematics does indeed increase your mental faculties. It may well only increase your mental acuity when it comes to mathematical problems, but your argument is as silly as saying bicep curls are of no use because they won't increase your overall fitness.

[Anesthesia]

If you would prefer your communiques be responded to by only a limited set of people you might want to either:

 

 

 

a) make a list of the people allowed to reply to your post at the end, or,

 

 

 

B) avail yourself of the private messaging facility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's just unnecessary... I was just clarifying my point, there is no need to be like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the remainder of that post, in the one before it you said that "It's not that it makes you smarter. But developing your knowledge of the appropriate branches of maths to what you hope to do in life will make your working life easier." but then you say that it does increase general mental faculties? Surely the same applies to any subject you may learn, so it's not specific to maths.

[dwarfie76]

As for the remainder of that post, in the one before it you said that "It's not that it makes you smarter. But developing your knowledge of the appropriate branches of maths to what you hope to do in life will make your working life easier."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In regard to the original poster's sentiments regarding encouraging pupils to take maths as a subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but then you say that it does increase general mental faculties? Surely the same applies to any subject you may learn, so it's not specific to maths.

 

 

 

No, I didn't say it increased your general mental faculties. I specifically said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It may well only increase your mental acuity when it comes to mathematical problems

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It all comes down to how finely you want to split hairs. Does doing crossword puzzles increase your general mental acuity? Or does it only help you get better at doing crossword puzzles?

[MyPurpleCrayon]

How can doing maths 'make you smarter'? It might increase your knowledge in that field, but it can't raise someone's intelligence. Also by choosing it as an option at any stage you are missing out on something else that may be more useful to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning new things makes you more intelligent as a whole. It teaches you to think different ways, and about different things. I thought that was pretty obvious though... :roll:

[____]

That would depend soley on the type of crossword :P

 

 

 

But then I'm just being picky so I'll leave it at that ;)

[Anesthesia]

Learning new things makes you more intelligent as a whole. It teaches you to think different ways, and about different things. I thought that was pretty obvious though... :roll:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, it depends how you define intelligent (insert token roll-eyes smiley).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I say that is just knowledge - the equivalent of programs, intelligence being the equivalent of the CPU. Knowing how to deal with a situation from something you've learned is the knowledge of how to do it, rather than the logic and intuition involved in thinking it through for yourself without being taught how.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are saying that the process of learning something makes you more intelligent rather than the result of having acquired the knowledge then it is not specific to maths, and can be applied to any subject.

[me_poulin]

Kind of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worked for a small plastic company My job was working the machines. basically I had to add up how many parts my machine made in one day. worked like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total amount: 10000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Box: 312

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parts: 23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trashed Parts: 40

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

basically I wrote all that down and handed it to the secretary and she added up if we had any missing parts or how many we're made in one day... not really math but its numbers all the same.... :roll:

[MyPurpleCrayon]

As for the remainder of that post, in the one before it you said that "It's not that it makes you smarter. But developing your knowledge of the appropriate branches of maths to what you hope to do in life will make your working life easier." but then you say that it does increase general mental faculties? Surely the same applies to any subject you may learn, so it's not specific to maths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So basically all you did here was pick my post apart word for word, when you know what I meant. Taking Math, like any other 'learning process', it increases knowledge in your brain. Which in the long run, will make you a smarter person.

[Anesthesia]

Taking Math, like any other 'learning process', it increases knowledge in your brain. Which in the long run, will make you a smarter person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, you still don't understand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a difference between knowledge and intuition, and I am saying that in my opinion being intelligent is the same as being intuitive, as opposed to being knowledgeable. Thinking on your feet as opposed to fitting things to a schema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You should stop using the word 'smarter', as it's so broad.

[dwarfie76]

There is a difference between knowledge and intuition, and I am saying that in my opinion being intelligent is the same as being intuitive, as opposed to being knowledgeable. Thinking on your feet as opposed to fitting things to a schema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good. Much easier to discuss this if we have a baseline for "intelligence". I still disagree though. Maths is essentially about problem solving. Problem solving is an intuitive process. Sure there are theories and formulas to be committed to memory or written down on a piece of paper, and most school-level maths is indeed simply inputting data into an algorithm and pulling data out the other end. But real world maths is about taking what you learnt at school and applying it intuitively to the situation at hand. I'm fairly sure most builders go through school without being set the problem:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Jane is building a house, and the house is 15 metres across and needs a roof pitch of 15 degrees, how long does Jane need to make the sides of her roof trusses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But they would come up against that problem numerous times throughout their working lives and be able to apply what they had learnt about trigonometry at school to work out how much timber to order.

[MyPurpleCrayon]

 

Taking Math, like any other 'learning process', it increases knowledge in your brain. Which in the long run, will make you a smarter person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, you still don't understand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a difference between knowledge and intuition, and I am saying that in my opinion being intelligent is the same as being intuitive, as opposed to being knowledgeable. Thinking on your feet as opposed to fitting things to a schema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You should stop using the word 'smarter', as it's so broad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well you obviously know what I am talking about since you are telling me what I am saying. So there is no need for what you are doing, as there is no need for any of your above arguments.

[Anesthesia]

To be honest, I doubt even you know what you're talking about. As is evidenced by your constant use of the word 'smarter'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know how it can be difficult as a tweenager, I know how you always know more than everyone else and are infallible, and I can only guess the belligerence comes from an underlying lack of self esteem.

[trunksrs]

Well, I'll be turning 19 in March, and have had 2 main jobs so far. The first working at McDonald's, the second working with my dad at a sheet metal fabrication plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People look down on McDonald's employees as uneducated (I have to agree for the most part, Mencia was dead on saying that kids and people new to America were the only people that belong there), but you better be good at math if you wanna work the register. It's not calculus, but you have to do 3 and 4 digit addition and subtraction every now and again when something goes wrong with the register.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working with my dad, we formed sheet metal into parts for computer and military equipment, and we had to use math all the time to make sure all the demensions were correct. For example, the prints would sometimes give the diameter of a whole, and the distance from the center of the whole to some other point. The only thing you could measure would be from the edge of the whole to the other giving point, so you would have to figure out what distance that was suppose to be. There was one time that I had to grab my graphing calculator and do a little calulus to try to find out what angle a certain part was supposed to be formed into.

[Papickett]

I'm unemployed. If there's anything mathmatical about that, please tell me.

[cardsfan]

sry if this has already been posted before...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i think that a lot of math teaching isnt necessarily the formulas. i know that in a lot of work, people have to make procedure like things, and if a mistake is made, having taken things like geometry that involve a lot of proofs, the mistake will be easier to find. so pretty much, i see math as useful for more than one way. math can be helpful if you know how to do the math, but it can also be helpful because it sets up sort of a protocol that you can use in your job.

[mad4u689]

Students s hould think about it this way: When someone graduates from college with a major in mathematics, they rarely become teachers, because they make so much more money from other jobs they get recruited for. Thus there is a lack of good math teachers out there!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I hope to be a math teacher eventually, too :D)

[Mythy01]

I sadly use a bit.

 

 

 

And even more sadely am in MATH 125 (college) in 11th grade....

 

 

 

Well I use it for + / - but thats about it, at my work. (ISOLDIT!)