Math is just letters and numbers, why should I even learn this?

Question

Here's a big question most students have at the start of learning the subject. I was never informed why I should be graphing numbers, why mathematicians used certain letters, or the implications on real world problem solving that algebra and calculus impose. Mathematics is used in every job, in some way shape or form, even in the arts, although most will never see or make that connection. We can quantify even qualitative concepts like supply and demand in Economics utilizing two dimensional graphing. Want to know how much coffee you have in your cup? Calculus! Want to know how far you need to travel to the gas station and how long it will take? Math! Nobody expects you to be a robot, but understanding how the world is shaped and operates will make you a more informed individual, and sound really cool at parties! ;) I hope you don't give up when you see the letters and numbers, rather ask the penultimate question, "What do those things mean with respect to my career?"

Answer 1

A dollar bill is just paper (really linen) and ink.

So why do you need it? want it? work for it?

Answer 2

There's a famous math journal article "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences," by Eugene Wigner. Since math is in a sense just tautologies, and some or most mathematicians consider numbers mere artificial constructs of the human mind, that it could have anything to do with the real world is a leap of faith. But it's as if even the most abstract complex mathematical theorem is prophetic of a future discovery of physical laws, just waiting to be discovered. How can that be?

Plus even if the math is at present "useless" and with no current empircal connection, just doing statistics and putting numbers and equations into your work makes it look so impressive especially if you do it at an advanced level where most people can't begin to figure out what you're saying or writing. It must be important, they think, so important and profound, they can't understand it.

The Unabomber was a brilliant mathematician. His doctoral disseration was so advanced his doctoral committee had trouble figuring it out. Yet the Unabomber gave up on a promising math career concluding it was just a useless game, and worse a tool of industrialists to destroy the environment. So he went bonkers, moved to a rural cabin and worshiped "Grandfather rabbit,' and sent industrialists letter bombs, getting himself life in super max prison. Sad ending.

Cantor, the mathematician who developed the math of infinity also went insane, even as he assured the Pope only God was infinite.The Pope still looked suspiciously at Cantor, suspecting a heretic.

Or Pythagoras who saw numbers everywhere, turning it into a mathematical religion or cult, a communal monestary, with a very peculiar paranoia about forbidden flava beans. Pythagoras believed in reincarnation and knew his prior lives. He was into numerology.

Michael Drosin with his Bible code, using computers to discover a number code in the Bible predicting the future. Sir.Isaac Newton calculating the end of the world, as 2060 AD. He originally calculated 2030 AD, but moved it up, interpreting Bible number passages. Bayes Theorem has also been used to calculate the end of the world, in a more secular manner, with estimates of about 10,000 years left.

Passwords and coded enscripted data are based on mathematical algorithms. Gans, the US intelligence code head also considered Drosin's Bible code to be real. Our best mathematicians are largely unknown as they get hired by the US government intelligence agencies.

Insurance companies base their life insurance premiums on actuarial tables, calculating the likely time individuals die. And they bet you'll live longer, while your purchase of the insurance is your bet you'll die sooner. Casinos and Las Vegas odds are set using mathematics of probability.

Watch the movie "Brilliant Mind" about another famous mathematician John Nash who won the Economics Nobel but then became delusional and schizophrenic, seeing ominous number patterns as if people were out to get him. Nash was an MIT professor, when The FBI discovered 4 math professors to have once been communists. Nash was later involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital for years. His paranoia about communists and FBI agents may have, in part, been due to the Cold War McCarthy era or exaggerated by it.

Then there's Mark Twain's famous quote "There's Lies, Damned Lies and then there's statistics" Stats and graphs can be manipulated, distorted, through various devious means to prove anything. Cherry picking, data mining and use of inappropriate units are popular techniques to mislead anyone. Everyone lies or fudges, at least a little, at times. But doing it with statistics is so much more convincing. It's very popular in politics where they cite numbers and stats to prove there is no inflation or there's historically high inflation, or to prove we're in a recession or that there is no rececession. Budget numbers often conceal the real deficit.

Then there's the movie "Money Ball" based on a nonfictiion book about the 2002 Oakland Raiders where stats on ball players win the championship, with better odds than the most experienced baseball coaches could have done discovering talent or doing clever trades.

Or Bayes Theorem used to estimate the number of Nazi tanks in WWII extrapolating from a few serial numbers on captured tanks, far better than the best military intelligence of the era.

Oddly there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics. "Just" chemistry, physics, medicine, economics, literature and peace. Even fictional Prof. Sheldon Cooper never would have won his fictional Nobel had he stuck to pure math. Charles Darwin knew no math, yet he's more famous and adored, by many, than the most brilliant Nobel laureate in advanced sciences.

There's a relatively unknown book "God is a Mathematician," arguing the Deity designed the world mathematically. Mathematical Design implies a Designer, more so than other apparent Design, goes the theistic argument.