Math in Our Daily Lives: Importance, Facts, and Examples
- Vinayak Khattar
- Jan 4
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 9
Whether you are a working adult or a student, there are multiple ways that math benefits us in our daily life. Below are some of the many benefits of math.
1. Math Helps You Tell the Time
Telling time is easier with math. In a recent study in Oklahoma City, 4 out of 5 children cannot read analog clock hands to tell time, Knowing math, and particularly, fractions, can help you better tell time. While analog clocks may eventually become obsolete, don’t let your ability to tell time become outdated! Use your knowledge of fractions to help you tell time on analog clocks that have an hour, minute, and (sometimes) second hand. You can test this out yourself simply by asking your own child to read the clock above!
2. Math is Key to Financing
In addition, It is nearly impossible to finance without math. Math can be helpful for balancing your budget because you will have a good understanding of how to make sure that your costs are less than the money you have. Balancing one’s bank account, for example, is an important life skill that requires math in order to subtract balances. If your child knows their math, they are less likely to go into debt because they know how to balance the ones they have and the money spent.
3. Math Makes Cooking/ Baking Easier
For those of you who love to cook with your child, math makes you a better cook (or baker)! With a knowledge of math, for example, you can quickly deduce that a half-cup of flour is the same thing as eight tablespoons of flour. This can be proven handy if you find that your half-cup measure is missing. Likewise, if you are cooking from a recipe that serves 4 people, but you need to feed 8 people, your math skills tell you that you can simply double all of the necessary ingredients. Without math, you may not have enough food (or have too much food) to feed your guests.
4. Math Opens Up Career Opportunities
In practically every career, math is used in some way. Obviously, mathematicians and scientists rely on mathematical principles to do the most basic aspects of their work such as test hypotheses. While scientific careers famously involve math, they are not the only careers to do so. Even operating a cash register requires that one understands basic arithmetic. People working in a factory must be able to do mental arithmetic to keep track of the parts on the assembly line and must, in some cases, manipulate fabrication software utilizing geometric properties (such as the dimensions of a part) in order to build their products. Really, any job requires math because you must know how to interpret your paycheck and balance your budget!
5. Math is a Universal Language
Math is all around us and helps us understand the world better. To live in a mathematically-driven world and not know math is like walking through an art museum with your eyes closed. Learning and appreciating math can help you appreciate things that you would not otherwise notice about the world. Math is understood the same virtually all over the world (and who knows, maybe all over the universe)! A math equation doesn’t need to be translated into another language to be understood by someone on the other side of the planet. A mathematical law doesn’t change because someone has a different religion than you or speaks a different language from you. 2 + 2 equals 4 in every single place on planet Earth. Pretty cool! The universality of math is one of the many things that makes it such a powerful tool and, indeed, an essential life skill.
Learning and appreciating math can help you appreciate things that you would not otherwise notice about the world. So the next time your child insists that math is boring or complicated, you can answer by telling them how we experience math every day. If they are still not convinced, here are 3 examples of math in our everyday lives.
Examples:
Bees, masters of geometry, use hexagons to build their honeycombs.
Your knowledge of fractions can help you divide a pizza among multiple people.
Physics explains the forces, motion, and energy of daily life; like driving a car or riding a roller coaster!
This is an amazing article to discuss with your kids. Imagine a world without math. After reading this blog post, do you think you could survive without math? We think the answer is no. I mean, just look at all the wonderful things math is used for and why math is important. Seriously, try one day without math and see if you catch yourself using it anyway.
Add your own reasons and then see what your child comes up with on how you were able to spend the day with/ without math in the comments!
Resources:
1. Mathnasium. (n.d.). 10 reasons why math is important to life. #1 Math Tutoring Programs & Homework Help.
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Contributors:
Mgim is a dedicated member and E.L.A. teacher in the Solomon Tutoring Writing Team. She is a Psychology major and is also minoring in Sociology and Art Therapy. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, and anything involving arts and crafts.
Tunisia Solomon, founder, and CEO of Solomon Tutoring enjoy sharing educational tips to help students reach academic excellence. She believes that anyone can achieve their dreams with access to the correct information, a growth mindset, belief in oneself, and "smart" work.
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