Mathematics: The Study of Numbers, Quantity, and Space
Introduction n the grocery store the shopper is trying to figure out the cheapest way to purchase corn chips The 6 ounce bag costs 6 The 3 ounce bag costs 3 50 Should the shop per purchase two 3 ounce bags or buy one 6 ounce bag On the baseball field the batter is calcu lating his batting average after every pitch The architect has to figure out the volume of water that fits inside a bathtub before she can design a support for it The caterer is try ing to estimate how many people in a party of 100 will prefer to have the chicken dish or the vegetable Welcome to the study of numbers quan tity and space also known as mathematics Mathematics is much more than a class at school Math is everywhere and is used by people dozens of times a day People use math to figure out how much time they have in the morning before work or school They use math when purchasing products doing home repairs and cooking dinner Math helps people recognize patterns and understand the world around them People who major in math in college do not just become math teachers Mathematicians work in every area of society They work for big
The are made by a ball thrown in the air is a parabola David Madison Photographer s Choice Getty Images
Mathematics The Study of Numbers Quantity and Space businesses and industries They are employed at all levels of government They work at universities Mathematicians may be accoun tants work in the insurance industry work at nonprofits or become market researchers analysts financial advisers real estate agents and statisticians They may go on to become doctors lawyers architects scientists come puter programmers video game developers digital animators and more That s because mathematicians learn how to use logic and analysis In many ways math is a language that first developed in the ancient world And like a language math has contin ued to evolve and grow The Egyptians show evidence of math through their man made pyramids The Babylonians of ancient Mesopotamia devel oped ways to work with fractions The Greeks took math to a philosophical level using it for reasoning Indian mathematicians advanced algebra Italians during the Renaissance began using letters of the alphabet in algebraic equations In the 17th century calculus and analytic geometry were developed Isaac Newton an English physicist who is considered one of 8
INTRODUCTION the most influential scientists of all time used both physics and math to make many math ematical discoveries The 18th and 19th centuries saw tremen dous changes in mathematics and more specialization by German English French and United States mathematicians Today mathematics is highly specialized There are many subdivisions of modern math ematics including algebra calculus geometry and trigonometry There is complex analysis the branch of math that investigates complex numbers number theory the study of different number systems set theory the expression of mathematics in terms of sets and mathematic cal logic drawing conclusions from premises Math will continue to evolve and grow Think about how computers have changed the way math is studied Mathematicians now use computers to solve problems too difficult to solve on paper To understand where math is today it's important to start at the beginning F 09
