Waxing eloquently on the basic importance of Mathematics in human life, Roger Bacon (1214-1294), an English Franciscan friar, philosopher, scientist and scholar of the 13th century, once stated: "Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of the world." And the ingenuity of his statement is there before us to see, in this Internet era.
However, mathematics, in itself, has all the ingredients that make it a universal language shared by all human beings irrespective of culture, religion, or gender. Pi is always 3.14159 regardless of where we are. Similarly, the elemental mathematical processes (like addition, subtraction, etc.) never get changed due to a change in the location or for any other reason whatsoever. These all say about the close intertwining of mathematics in our daily life.
At a time when even a common man is being increasingly dependent upon the application of science and technology in the day-to-day activities of life, the role of mathematics has undoubtedly been redefined. Right from getting up in early hours of the day to the ringing of an alarm, to wait for the counts of whistles of the cooker, to exchange currency at a ticket outlet while availing a public conveyance, almost every next moment we do the simple calculations at the back of our mind. Of course, these are all done pretty unconsciously without a thought being spared for the use of mathematics on all such occasions.
Reading time on a watch, rounding a date on a calendar, checking up the mileage of your car, halting at the filling station, attending to a roll call at school, getting scores in the class exams, scoring in a game, betting on a horse race, preparing a recipe in the kitchen, - the list is just endless if one goes on to note down the situations when our computational skill, or more specifically, simple mathematics comes to play a role. It scares us to certain extent to think of a life without any knowledge of calculation or computation, or in other words mathematics. In many a case, lack of a formal education hardly affects gaining a relative mastery in these computational skills which are so essential in our daily life.
At a psychological level, exposure to mathematics helps in developing an analytic mind and assists in better organization of ideas and accurate expression of thoughts. At a more general level, far away from dealing with the higher mathematical concepts, the importance of mathematics for a common man is underpinned whenever he visits banks, shopping malls, railways, post offices, insurance companies, or deals with transport, business transactions, imports and exports, trade and commerce, and the ilk. Even when we think of role of mathematics in our recreational activities, we surprisingly have a list that runs quite long: video games, computer games, puzzles, riddles, and so on.
It ensues from the above discussion that a modern life style seems completely handicapped and at times, highly improbable, in the absence of mathematics. For, unless we are well versed in the language of numbers, we would find it difficult to reach at important decisions and perform everyday tasks. Be it to shop wisely, or buy the right insurance, or refashion a home within a budget, knowledge of mathematics holds the key, and hence, barely necessary.
Gopi Krishna Mamidipudi is the president & founder of iCoachMath. The company is providing All Free Solved Exampled for Math from K ? 12.In All USA State Curriculum and also covers all Mathematics Curriculum topics & lessons
There exists in this world people who are professionals at bartering. You see them at swap meets and flea markets. And if you get a chance to watch someone who makes their living trading in the markets like that, the skills they demonstrate are really something to watch. You can learn a thing or two about how to make deals and interact in a bartering situation just watching people who call that their livelihood and do very well making trades and finding hidden treasures to sell elsewhere.
But the skill of bartering can become part of the lifestyle of you and your family without everyone becoming a fast talking deal maker. All you have to do is think of ways to trade for goods or services rather than use money as the only way you get things done or get new stuff. Even at the family level, many of the arrangements you make with your kids are on the barter system. The child might do his homework and clean up his room in exchange for TV time that night. To the parent, that isn't a barter but earning a privilege. But to the child that is a barter that they are willing to be a part of.
You have a lot of community relationships with people at your church, neighbors in your cul-de-sac or other moms and dads whose kids go to school with your children. These family connections and social networks explode with ways to barter for mutual benefit in daily life. One very common form of barter is exchange for services to watch each other's children. Perhaps you can pick up some of your son's friends and let them stay at your house until their parents get off work each day. And for that 2 hours of work you do, those families can reciprocate and let your children spend a Saturday at their house while you take some time to take care of your personal business.
In the same way, goods are commonly traded between neighbors in ways that are just neighborly and don't seem like financial transactions at all. If you and your neighbor are really good gardeners, a natural barter situation comes about when you trade your crops. If you have a bumper crop of tomatoes and you give them away only to find your neighbor at the door with a sack full of cucumbers, you may not even know it but a trade just took place without a single negotiation having to happen.
Sharing a ride with a neighbor to a school event, picking up each others mail when on vacation or helping a neighbor fix their fence because they mowed your lawn when you had a bad back are all natural ways that bartering become a part of daily life in ways that we never really associate with economics or trading. But those forms of mutual help agreements have a huge value to you and I in ways that are hard to put a monetary value on. Not only do you eliminate money from an exchange of goods or services but you build friendships and trust neighbor to neighbor. And that is an outcome of bartering with people you are close to that is priceless.
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