Well, should you? Is it worth the dirty looks and gestures from the "considerate" drivers to be one of the line budgers? Or do you become one of the "vigilantes" who punish the "sidezoomers" by blocking them? So many options to choose from, so many decisions to make! What's a "non-math" person to do?
The World is Divided Between “Math People” and “Non-Math People,” Right?
"So even if you dislike math in high school, you might end up needing it [in college]," Steven Howlett states in his article "The Glories of Math! Or Not ..." in an issue of the student newspaper at the high school I work at. In the same article, co-author Michael Fackelmann concludes – after surveying his parents at the dinner table and teachers in school – that high school math is “useless nonsense,” and that no one ever uses "complex formulas and problem solving methods ... in real life situations."Not ever.
But do Mr. Fackelmann 's parents never, ever, really never use the problem-solving skills they were exposed to in their algebra, geometry, and calculus classes a quarter-century ago? Maybe they use them in their everyday activities and aren't even aware of their secret powers. Is there a possibility that his mom does indeed get into a situation – maybe just once a day, mind you – where she weighs the merits of two options and chooses between them? It might be something as mundane as choosing a cell phone plan, or it could be something that affects the whole family, like deciding which job offer to accept. Maybe – sometimes – there are more than two options involved, like four or five, in various combinations (or permutations, as we call them in algebra). Maybe sometimes these situations come up more than once a day.
Just maybe.
If we stop to really think about it, we encounter numerous and myriad circumstances daily that are easier to survive if the observation, pattern recognition, skepticism, and perseverance skills we hope high school math sharpened in us are up and running. Some are more obvious to us if they involve numbers, like when we're in Best Buy trying to figure out which combination of discount coupons gives us the best deal on the latest and greatest electronics. Or recalling the rules and ramifications of probability and odds when buying a lottery ticket, investing in the stock market, or deciding which health or life insurance plans to spend your money on (yes, insurance plans are just as much gambling as going to Vegas is).
And some are not so obvious. Is it possible that Mr. Fackelmann's dad forgets that the doodles he created the night before while scheduling planning committee meetings for his high school reunion look suspiciously like vertex-coloring graphs from Discrete Math? It's certainly likely he doesn't realize that airlines use this same high school math method to ensure all of his classmates get to that 25th Reunion on time next October.
Maybe It’s Not Just About the Numbers
Really.Instead of having those nicely numbered and formatted textbook and worksheet problems to solve, you soon find yourself in a cubicle reading the latest email from the boss tasking you with recommending the best way to increase sales by 3% next quarter. Even if you recall how linear programming works (that would be from Algebra 2), you need those observation and pattern recognition skills to figure out just what "best" means (because your boss didn't bother to tell you what she meant by "best"), what are all the factors that affect and drive sales, where can you get the needed information, what information is relevant and what is not (and everything in-between). Even though some of these pieces of the puzzle may be represented by numbers, they are not numbers in themselves; they are company policies, government regulations, economic conditions, the season of the year, the demographic makeup of the customers, product inventory levels, and the availability, training, and performance of the company workforce. This is where you truly start appreciating those skepticism (did I consider everything? is this the answer she was looking for?) and perseverance (do I need to model just 11 possible situations or is a twelfth necessary?) skills.
And if you find yourself in a profession completely devoid of numbers, you still don’t escape problems/puzzles and the tools necessary to unravel and understand them. Even that kid who majored in English and became a film critic depends on the same observation and pattern recognition skills she developed in factoring polynomials to identify and put movie themes in context for her readers.
Sometimes the "real world" jumps into our lives sooner than we expect. In class the other day, a discussion of our county's school budget issues got a bit heated. Students expressed concerns about the potential for new athletic and parking fees, the reduction of staffing for athletic and guidance programs, as well as the elimination of summer school. One student was impressive in her ability to apprehend the complexity of a seemingly simple issue. Upset that freshmen sports may be eliminated, she concisely discussed not only the immediate impact on incoming freshmen athletes, but identified the not-so-obvious effects this change would have on JV and varsity sports years down the road. Her ability to recognize and analyze these connections – and make predictions based on them – is the same ability we use when solving those multi-step geometry problems that contain a mix of parallel-line, interior-angle-sum, supplementary/complementary-angle, similar-right-triangle mini-problems. Just no numbers this time.
Mr. Fackelmann argument is persuasive, but only if we think high school math is only about numbers. But what if it isn't just about numbers? Just maybe his parents (and the rest of us) use high school math more often than we recognize. Maybe we actually use it a lot. Just maybe.
Wondering what the traffic jam at the beginning of this piece is about? Good, because math guys actually do, too, and have put a lot of effort into figuring out who's right in that situation. The considerate-mergers? The sidezoomers? The vigilantes? Admittedly, this is not an "everyday" use of math in the sense that you or we have the resources to figure it out, but it is an "everyday" situation in which math can help us. (For the solution, either Google "queuing theory merging traffic" or think about zippers while sitting in your car.)
On the other hand, the next time you go into McDonalds, consider whether you'll get your burger and fries sooner if you form three lines while waiting for someone to take your order, or is a single line feeding into the three registers better? High school math just might help — and there's no numbers involved, just a big ol' juicy Big Mac!
About the merging thing. I absolutely agree that math is necessary to make the situation work as smoothly as possible. If everyone understood the concept of merging (hence, the zipper) there would be no problem except for the somewhat slow traffic. Unfortunately, as drivers we all know that most are impatient. Wherever they're going is more important than anyone else on the road. I believe some refer to this as "The God Complex". Not believing in god I just fall back on the more comfortable "their ego-maniac assholes". And, where there is one there are usually several. Following the small herd, shall we say.
ReplyDeleteThe considerate mergers are the nicer people, but the problem with them is some are too nice and think they're helping the situation by just stopping and letting 49 cars merge before they move ahead. Hence, pissing off many drivers behind them who have had to wait 49 turns to move up. Apparently, these people don't wear clothes with zippers or, more likely, are just too stupid to know the actual problem they are causing. Oh, and they most likely flunked math and should probably still be in remedial math class at the age of 55. Meanwhile, the drivers who had to wait for the merging 49 have now become....you guessed it. Assholes. But, rightly so in that situation.
Now we come to the vigilantes that are going to put a stop to these assholes driving on the shoulder to get to the head of the line. Because, let's remember, the assholes truly believe it's their right. Delusional thinking is rampant in this scenario. So, back to the vigilantes. They move over on to the shoulder to block the assholes. Riding bumpers starts, horn honking by the droves, lots of middle fingers out the window, rampant use of the most profane language ever (except for nurses) and all around a total, one hundred percent clusterfuck.
As a driver just going along doing the right thing, all of this going on in front of them is either amusing and helping to pass the time or increasing their core body temperature by hundreds of degrees, thus creating another asshole who drives on the shoulder. What the hell? How does one fix the problem?
Well, whenever I know I may end up in a situation like this I make sure I drive my version of "the Batmobile" equipped with missiles, machine guns, heavy armor and, if necessary, wings so I can just get the hell out of their before I kill anyone. Who's smarter now?
Oh, well, the only real solution is everyone understanding the queuing theory of merging traffic. But, that would require we all lived in Disney World in little, cute Mickey Mouse houses and sang our way through life only needing the tram if we really need to ever go anywhere.