Imagine you've just taken a big step and bought the house of your dreams! It's very big and contains all the bells and whistles...but it doesn't scream "YOU!" just yet. Decorating is an important step in the process of making a house into a home. You'll need to pick out colors, patterns, accessories, and more...and don't forget the math!
Oh yes, mathematics is essential to home decoration! Don't believe me? Suppose you're trying to pick out a new sofa to put in your living room. You want one that's nice and big so that all of your friends and family can sit on it and visit with each other. But how big is too big? How will you know how much space this sofa will take up? What if it doesn't fit? Grab your tape measure and start calculating some areas! Find the area of the space you'd like to put the sofa in, and decide how much space you'd like for it to take up. Then take those dimensions with you when you shop so that you know what you're looking for!
What if you'd like to put in some fancy plush carpet? Putting new carpeting or flooring in a house can get expensive. The last thing you want to do is order too much or go over your budget. Back to finding areas! You'll need to take every nook and cranny of the room into account. The best way to do this is to split the room into many rectangles or other simple polygons. If you can find the areas of the smaller pieces, then you can add them together to get the area of the whole room. Some simple multiplication can help you compare prices and decide which carpet suits your budget best.
There are many other ways that math is useful in home decorating. For examples of the ideas I've shared and for additional ideas, see this page.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Countable Cooking
Have you ever cooked an entire meal on your own? Maybe you've baked some cookies or a cake. Perhaps you've prepared something simple such as an ice cream sundae or a pitcher of lemonade. Chances are that you were doing mathematics without even realizing it! The mathematics of cooking goes far beyond counting the quantities of ingredients that you need to add.
Suppose that you begin a recipe only to realize that you don't have enough flour to add what the recipe calls for. You decide that you'll continue with the recipe and end up with a smaller amount of final product. But wait! If the amount of flour is smaller, the amounts of all the other ingredients have to be smaller too, otherwise you risk turning your yummy treats into inedible garbage. In this instance, you can use ratios to look at the proportions of ingredients to each other. For instance, if you originally needed 2 cups of flour and 4 eggs but you only have 1 cup of flour, then you will only need 2 eggs. 2/4 = 1/2.
What if you have an amazing recipe you want to try for a party, but the yield is not as large as you need it to be? Maybe the recipe yields 5 servings, but you need for there to be 20 servings. Since 5 x 4 = 20, you need to multiply all of your ingredient quantities by 4. This is another example of using proportions in cooking.
This link provides further explanation as well as more examples if you'd like to learn more.
Suppose that you begin a recipe only to realize that you don't have enough flour to add what the recipe calls for. You decide that you'll continue with the recipe and end up with a smaller amount of final product. But wait! If the amount of flour is smaller, the amounts of all the other ingredients have to be smaller too, otherwise you risk turning your yummy treats into inedible garbage. In this instance, you can use ratios to look at the proportions of ingredients to each other. For instance, if you originally needed 2 cups of flour and 4 eggs but you only have 1 cup of flour, then you will only need 2 eggs. 2/4 = 1/2.
What if you have an amazing recipe you want to try for a party, but the yield is not as large as you need it to be? Maybe the recipe yields 5 servings, but you need for there to be 20 servings. Since 5 x 4 = 20, you need to multiply all of your ingredient quantities by 4. This is another example of using proportions in cooking.
This link provides further explanation as well as more examples if you'd like to learn more.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
A few resources for those who are interested!
So...you're big on education, you're big on mathematics. Then you think about combining the two and you automatically think of lecture! Note-taking! Definitions! Theorems! And once graduation comes around, out the window it goes. After all, you can use a calculator all you want now!
While this may be the case for some people, others use more math in their daily lives than most people realize. Think about architects. Imagine if they didn't use math when sketching blueprints. We'd certainly have a lot of crooked buildings. Imagine if chefs never used math in the kitchen. Things would probably taste a little funky. And if doctors didn't use math, you may not be alive to be reading this blog right now.
For anyone who's curious or wants to learn more about the quest to bring reality back to the math classroom, I've compiled a list of great Twitter feeds that are relevant to the topic. You can find it here: https://twitter.com/#!/emmihelin/math-in-real-life
For your place of residence, your health care, and for the perfectly rectangular screen you're reading this on right now, be sure to thank a mathematician! :)
While this may be the case for some people, others use more math in their daily lives than most people realize. Think about architects. Imagine if they didn't use math when sketching blueprints. We'd certainly have a lot of crooked buildings. Imagine if chefs never used math in the kitchen. Things would probably taste a little funky. And if doctors didn't use math, you may not be alive to be reading this blog right now.
For anyone who's curious or wants to learn more about the quest to bring reality back to the math classroom, I've compiled a list of great Twitter feeds that are relevant to the topic. You can find it here: https://twitter.com/#!/emmihelin/math-in-real-life
For your place of residence, your health care, and for the perfectly rectangular screen you're reading this on right now, be sure to thank a mathematician! :)
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