We have all been there: sitting in an advanced math class thinking to ourselves, “When am I ever going to use this in the real world?” While you may never need to know how to factor a derivative and graph it again, math does teach you some important life lessons.
1. Sometimes You Don’t Have all the Necessary Information
Solving a math equation is really hard when you don’t have all the factors required. The same is true about problems in life. If you do not have all the factors required to solve the problem, it can be very hard and very frustrating. You may have to do some searching and/or some rearranging in order to find the information that you need to continue.
2. Thinking “Out of the Box” Can be a Good Thing
Remember those thinking and inquiry questions on tests which took what was learned to help solve problems and made it ten times harder in order to get you to think about what you learned? Even though it may have been out of your comfort zone, you had to think “outside the box” in order to solve the problem. Life has these kinds of problems as well. You will have to take what you know from past experiences and come up with a creative way to solve the problem. Warning: it still may be outside of your comfort zone.
3. Trial and Error Can be a Good Strategy
In math, sometimes you just have to try different ways to solve an equation or try different numbers inserted into the equation to get the correct answer. It may be a long and tedious process, but, in the end, it can be effective. It can also be effective in life as long as you are willing to put in a little extra effort to solve your problem. You learn some of the best things in life through trial and error. For example, this is how you learn to walk, to skate, to draw, to write your name, and to study. It is still a very relevant strategy as you grow older.
4. There are Irrational/Unreal Numbers/Factors
The “i” symbol is used to represent an irrational/unreal number. When using this in math equations, it has its own set rules around it. It can make an equation substantially harder. When you have irrational/unreal factors in life problems, they can be substantially harder as well.
5. You May Not Know Where to Begin
You can sit and stare at that math question sitting in front of you for half an hour or more and still not know where to begin. You can sit there contemplating what needs to be done for life for that long as well. The advice for both of these is the same. Just go for it. Try something. Things will become clear if you start somewhere instead of wondering where to start.
6. Equations Need to be Balanced
Math equations always need to stay balanced. If you add something to one side of the equation, you must do the same to the other. Life needs to be balanced as well. If something takes up more of your time than usual, something needs to be done to compensate for that. An unbalanced math equation can cause some major result errors. An unbalanced life can cause a lot of stress.
7. It’s Usually the Little Things That You Mess Up On
You can do this long, complicated math problem and still get the wrong solution simply because you forgot a negative sign, multiplied when you should have added, or forgot how to add simple numbers (3+2=5 not 6). Sometimes you mess up on the simple decisions in life as well and it changes your predicted outcome. Don’t worry. It is a common part of life.
You may never need to divide a polynomial function by another polynomial function again. However, be glad that you did get some valuable information from all those math classes.