Applied mathematics
how do you use math in you everyday avtivities?
Hi Kyle, There are so many ways to use math in everyday life... many of them involve just basic algebra. Here are some examples of questions I have used algebra to solve over the last week or so: 1. I can buy a parking permit at my work for $450 for the year, or I can take a trolley to and from work for $55 per month for unlimited trolley trips. I go in to work an average of 4 days a week. I live about 5 miles from work and gas prices are rising. What gas price would make it cheaper for me to take the trolley than to drive to work? 2. Would it be cheaper for me to buy the monthly trolley pass, or to pay $2.25 each way for each trip on the trolley? 3. I've been riding my bike for 15 minutes, and I'm only 1/3 of the way to the beach. My friend calls me on my cell phone and asks me when I'm going to finally get there. How much longer until I get to the beach? 4. My friend and I are at the beach, and we both want strawberry lemonades. One 8 oz glass of lemonade is $2.00, and a 20 ounce glass is $3.50. Should we each get our own glass, or just get one big glass with two straws? 5. My cell phone plan includes 500 minutes a month for $49.99. Every minute over that 500 minute limit costs me $.40. The last couple of months I've used about 600 minutes per month. Would it be cheaper for me to switch to the $59.99 per month plan, which includes 800 minutes per month? 6. My friend is visiting his family in England this week. The time in England is 8 hours ahead of the time in San Diego. I know he doesn't wake up until 9am, and his family goes to bed by 11pm (England time). I wake up around 10am and go to bed at 12pm here in San Diego. What times of the day will we both be awake at the same time, so that I can give him a call? I hope I haven't given too many examples! I just wanted to show that math comes up all day long, and being comfortable using math makes it easy to answer lots of every day questions. I hope that helped! Diane Hoffoss