Mathematics In Everyday Life Essay Examples

Wherever we go and whatever we do, we are applying mathematics in our everyday life without even realizing that we are doing it. People have been using the principle of mathematics everyday for thousands of years. When someone buys vegetables in the market, constructs a house or travels by train, knowingly or unknowingly he applies simple mathematics. Here are some examples to show how mathematics finds application in everyday life.

Math in the kitchen

Consider a woman preparing cake in the kitchen by following instructions from a cookery book. The book presents the list of ingredients required for preparing a cake of weight 2 kilograms whereas the woman wants to prepare a cake of one kilogram. Therefore, she has to take all the ingredients in such a way that she finally gets a cake of one kilogram, and hence she divides the quantity of each and every ingredient by two so as to get a cake suitable for her family. She applies math to arrive at the exact quantity of each ingredient needed for preparing the cake.

Math in carpeting the house

Supposing that a man wants to carpet his entire house except the bathrooms, for calculating the quantity of carpet required, he takes the measurement of each and every room. He calculates the area of each room by multiplying the length and breadth. After having calculated the total carpet area of each room, he adds them up to arrive at the total quantity of carpet required in square feet. While buying the carpet, he may enquire the shopkeeper per square feet cost of the carpet, and multiplies it with his requirement to arrive at the total cost. If the cost exceeds his budget, he will divide his budget by the floor area to arrive at the square feet cost of carpet he can afford and does his purchase accordingly.

Math in gardening

A gardener, who has to calculate the total fertilizer requirement for all the flower plants in the garden, needs to check up with the fertilizer recommendation chart before arriving at the total fertilizer requirement for his garden. Firstly, he lists out the number of different plant varieties in the garden, and then multiplies the total number of each plant with the recommended fertilizer dosage in kilogram, and finally adds up all the values to arrive at the total fertilizer requirement in kilogram.

Math in planning a party

A family arranging a get together party plans well in advance. The members meticulously plan the menu and other entertainments. After having decided upon the number of people expected for the party, they calculate the food expense by multiplying the number of people expected by per head cost as per their convenience. They hire a suitable place for the party on the basis of the number of people expected to attend the party. The hotelier suggests a hall of a particular size, keeping in mind the number of guests expected. Similarly for arranging a music program during the party, the program director may charge on a hourly basis, and the hosts may settle for a couple of hours of music and arrive at the expense by multiplying the per hour rate and number of hours they wish to have the music program. Adding up all the expenditures under three different heads would give the total expenditure for hosting the party.

Math while traveling

A youngster traveling to a new place by bus applies math in his mind to predict when he will reach the place 500 miles from where he starts. For example, he may note the time when the bus starts, and while travelling he may look for the distance to his destination indicated on the roadside milestones. On seeing a mile stone indicating 400 miles to his destination, he will know the time required to travel up to this point by comparing the present time and the time when he started, which gives the time taken by the bus to travel 100 miles. In his mind, he will multiply this time by five to know the time required to travel between his starting point and the destination.