Where I go to college, math, science and engineering reign supreme! Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology really only offers majors in these fields. However, I recognize that schools like this are rare. For the most part, people are not going to college to study engineering, math and science. For most people, the mandatory semester of math they have to take is probably the worst 15 weeks of their college experience. For 15 weeks, these kids learn about rules, techniques, and principals that they will most likely never see again. For this reason a lot of high school and college students, as well as workplace professionals probably dismiss math as unimportant. While it is true that most people do not directly encounter mathematics during their day job, I hope to convince you that math is still very important to you, and here are a few examples why!
1. Internet Encryption
Whenever you do pretty much anything that involves the internet, encryption is probably at play. If you are skyping with a friend halfway across the world, your communication is encrypted so that not just anyone can listen to your conversation. Whenever you buy something off Amazon, your credit card information is encrypted. That is something that you should really be thankful for. If not, millions of people would have instant access to your credit card. Put simply, internet encryption relies on the multiplication of prime numbers: very large prime numbers. When you make an online purchase, your credit card information is stored inside of a number made up of the products of many prime numbers. These encryption keys can be over 200 digits. To be able to access your information, these keys would have to be factored all the way down to the prime numbers. Put simply, your information is safe online thanks to prime numbers!
2. Weather Forecasting
Nothing can ruin a day of awesome plans as fast as the weather. A day filled with outside activities can quickly be spoiled by a thunderstorm. For this reason, mathematicians and meteorologists try their hardest to give you accurate weather forecasts for the days to come. No, the methods are not perfect, but they have come an incredibly long way. Weather forecasting uses a mathematical tool known as “Numerical weather prediction” along with computer simulations to forecast the weather (check out this link to learn more! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_weather_prediction). At the moment, mathematicians are highly confident with their predictions up to about 14 days. This gives everyone up to two weeks to plan things! That is pretty convenient if you ask me!
3. Road Design
This awesome application is twofold! Civil engineers use a lot of mathematics when designing roads. First of all, every highway curve and ramp has to be designed to have the correct pitch and radius so that cars won’t end up in a ditch on the side of the road. Civil engineers also have to make sure that the distance ahead drivers can see is safe for the type of driving maneuver that is being made. To do this, engineers have to use some pretty complicated formulas that take into account the curvature of the earth when determining how far ahead a car, bus, or truck will be able to see! When designing roads, engineers and mathematicians also have to take into account how traffic will behave on the road. To do this, civil engineers and mathematicians use fluid mechanics to determine how cars will flow through things like lane closures during construction, merges onto a highway, and bridges and tunnels. Mathematics is a road designer’s best friend!
As you can see from even this short list, mathematics have a wide range of applications. So next time you are sitting in math class bored out of your mind wondering why you need to learn about such a useless subject that has no impact on the rest of your life, just remember these three reasons!
