They are the things that matter in life if you would like to be in engineering.

by Anonymous 14 years ago

You can't forget about trigonometry. Otherwise no one would be able to make corny math puns like sin(b)/tan(b) = picture of bill cosby.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Anybody in Calculus? Position functions? A bug crawls at a speed so that it's position is x(t)= 5x+1. Is the bug's speed increasing or decreasing at time t=7. Like...my eyes have been opened to all the possibilities.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Do I really need to know what the volume of a parabola would be if I rotated it around the x-axis and it created a 3D figure and I wanted to measure the volume using triangle cross-sections? Everything is so hypothetical in that class. That's why I YYA'd. The only math classes that I think really matter are Geometry and earlier, unless you're being an engineer.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Or physics. Or business. Or graphic programming.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't agree completely with this post, but I agree enough to YYA it. Sure, those professions need math. I'm not saying math isn't necessary, but even pre-med students don't need Calculus to get into medical school. Many med schools only require algebra or statistics. I feel that certain higher level math is not relevant to the average person, not even professionals like doctors and lawyers. I understand that math challenges you. That's why I'm in Calculus, but I can certainly see why some people don't find it necessary.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Yeah, I'm just tired of some people (not saying you) saying math is pointless because only a few careers require math while the same is true for nearly every subject taught in high school.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Hah, i get it because i was in calculus!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

http://xkcd.com/1050/

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You need math for the STEM fields (science,technology,engineering,math). These are the professions of the future. Of course if you're going into art history, you don't need math, but then again you are probably rich enough to not need a job in the first place.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I defiantly read the word "Math" as "Meth" at first and it gave the post a completely different meaning

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The sarcasm in this post is too much for me.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

And I wouldn't know the height of a flag pole based on the length of it's shadow at 4 in the afternoon during a solar flare.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Math challenges your mind... why should our learning stop after we're taught the basics? That's kind of like saying art classes should end after you can draw a stick figure.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Also once you finish high school and go on to do whatever you'd like to do (university, college, work, etc) you don't have to move forward with math. The idea is not to close any doors so that if one day you choose to pursue a career involving or requiring math, you have the foundation you need. And yeah, math is crucial to engineering, physics, chemistry, etc. We'd have nothing today without the progress we've made in those fields.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

People who don't understand math won't understand how it can be used in real life. If you're going into a career where you won't use at least highschool math, you probably don't even need highschool. Math is actually quite artistic (or you could say the art is mathematical), a lot of people don't see this. You also need math to make more logical, better, choices in life. An example is the Monty Hall problem.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't want to hear you complain. Calculus students have earned a right to complain. Just wait until you have to derive the rate of change of the height of the ladder against a wall as it slides backwards from the wall at a rate of x m/s. Oh and just for laughs its no longer a ladder, but a curve. Now derive it again and tell me the amount of meters per second per second (m/s/s), a.k.a the acceleration of the sliding of the ladder backwards. And hey, just for giggles integrate the area beneath the curve and tell me the total distance the object will travel. Now spin that area around the x-axis and tell me the volume of the object on a 3-d euclidean plane that, that object makes. Welcome to calculus level 1. At level 2 we will turn the ladder into a fucking fractal, just for shits and giggles! you have not begun to experience the arbitrariness of math.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Before anyone responds, i do know calculus is fundamental for physics.

by Anonymous 13 years ago