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Comment by Etherlord87 | Hacker News Reader

I'm using math(s) a lot, trigonometry, matrices, algebra… But most of my friend, family, I couldn't convince to learn math just based on the argumentation they can use it in practice.

Yes, calculating the right amount of fence is useful, but not only (as someone pointed out) you don't need a lot of math for that, people just take take a ruler on the plan, or count steps in field, going across the entire length, then estimate, and it works.

> estimation of 500km route arrival time while taking traffic statistics into the account

Who does this? How would you convince a friend to learn math in order to do this? What people do is they remember how long a 200 km route took and so they estimate the 2.5× longer path will take 2.5× more time.

We need examples of real world math applications, because such examples are scarce across the Internet.

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>Who does this? How would you convince a friend to learn math in order to do this? What people do is they remember how long a 200 km route took and so they estimate the 2.5× longer path will take 2.5× more time.

Who does it? Navigation app in your phone. They modeled this problem using math. While you could probably model it somehow without math, but why would you want to do it other way, when you have reliable, mature and flexible tool

I didnt write that you shouldnt leverage tech.

Do it, yet be aware how it works and why. You can leverage math in other custom scenarios

So what I'm hearing is that math is only good when there is no GPS / no phone.

Let's be honest: advanced math is useful in programming contexts. Everywhere else, in 2023 you're using computer programs that will do the hard math for you.

You didnt understand my message.

Math is not about calculators or computers.

It is about modeling (e.g real world)

It is useful whenever non-standard, already modeled in your calculator problem apprears.

Which is basically never, if you're not a developer or statistician.

Actually everybody needs it, they just outsource it to somebody who can do it better than them.

The real problem is you can cannot find a language which you don't speak, useful.

The only reason why things like Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division come easily even to people without any education is because it has to become a part of their everyday vocabulary if you have to as little as start a lemonade stand. If Im not wrong Arabs arrived at algebra trying to workout inheritance laws from the Quran. Want to build a home, you can only brute force that much, eventually you are likely to invent the Pythagoras theorem, measurement techniques, myriad other geometrical methods.

All this is possible because if you have to do a thing, anything at all, well, you have to arrive at the most logically consistent formulation of the problem. That helps you to not only do it well, but do it right.

The real question there fore is introducing Math in a way it becomes a part of people vocabulary and general language.

>You didnt understand my message.

Perhaps he didn’t and isn’t it a part of the problem to apply math?

>Then you basically not only get better tools to operate (model) in real world, day2day life, but also it opens you doors to highly paid careers.

can you elaborate on how “it opens you doors to highly paid careers”?

>can you elaborate on how “it opens you doors to highly paid careers”?

Depends on the level of proficiency

Examples can be engineering or fancy financial related companies like Jane Street

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