Demonstrating Math Competency through Life Application - Essay Example

Demonstrating Math Competency through Life Application Introduction A way back Pythagoras said "Number rules the universe". I do not know in whatsense he uttered this phrase but I always found the phrase true in my daily life. One cannot proceed and grow in ones life without mastering the essential math. Math makes our life pleasurable and enjoyable by guiding us through new ways and means sorting out our innumerable issues that we come across in our daily life. Math fascinated me early in my life and my grasp over math has helped me immensely in my personal and professional life. How I applied Math in My School Days During my school days, I invariably used to come across the discount wars among marketers. Someone would offer a discount of 10% while their rival would come forward to lure with huge 30% discount. It was difficult for me to understand in those days what financial impact it could make on buyers like me. In one of the instance, during mid ‘80s, in one of the campaigns ADIDAS shoes were offered with huge 25 % discount if three pairs were bought at a time. As such, if I bought a single pair it would cost me $24 and I had no capacity to buy three in a single stretch. I calculated the saving that I would get if I bought three pairs and that came to 24 × (25/100) = $6. That was huge for me as that was my weakly pocket money. I immediately convinced my two of the friends and purchased three pairs of ADIDAS shoes from the shop, one for each of us and that is how each one of us saved a good sum of money. Since then I grabbed many opportunities of buying stuffs available during their huge discounted offerings. In fact, I truly realized the mathematical meaning of the discounts then. My Outing to the City of New York At age 20, I decided to go to New York City for outing with my three friends during our 4-day vacation in college. I needed to estimate the money that we must have in our pocket before we could really plan such tours. Since we decided to hire a car, our expenses on gas needed to be counted to arrive at the major travelling expense on this tour. We selected Honda midsized rental car. In those days, they used to charge rental of nearly $20 a day. We selected Honda because that would give us a good fuel economy of 36 miles per gallon. I checked map and found that the distance between Richmond and New York was 340 miles. Counting two and fro distance between these two cities, I got the distance of 340 × 2= 680 miles. For roaming the tourist places around the New York City during our three days’ stay over there, I added another 300 miles in total mileage. Thus, I arrived at the figure of 680+300= 980 miles that our rental car would run around in our outing. Based on this, I needed to calculate the gas consumption and its cost, given that Honda gave fuel economy of 36 miles per gallon. Consumption of gas = total running / fuel economy = 980/36 = 27.22 gallons. In those days, gas would sell at $1.2 per gallon. Hence, expense toward gas would be 27.22 ×1.2 = $32.66. Car rentals for four days would be 20 × 4 = $80 Total expense on transportation would be 32.66 + 80 = $112.66 Dividing the expense among four of us, each one needed to bear the cost of 112.66/4 = $ 28.16. Adding the cost of hotel rooms and food expenses on this, I got the fair idea what we needed to have in our pocket before starting this tour. Math did help me in planning and preparing a budget for the tour. Math in Recipe Preparation I am fond of cooking and love preparing, serving and eating desserts. A couple of years back, I came across a recipe from an East Indian author. The name of the recipe was Almond Jelly with Fruit Cocktail. The recipe had 8 ingredients and the preparation was given to serve 8 people. Since we were 5 people in the family and I was making it for the first time, I decided to go for quantity that was enough for 5 people. The recipe had the following ingredients. China grass-- 15 tablespoons; Sugar- 18 tablespoons; Milk-- 4 cups; almonds blanched -- 2 tablespoons, Leeches- 500 grams; Pineapple tidbits-- 500 grams; Seedless Grapes-- 300 grams; Vanilla essence – 2 to 3 drops. I had to adjust the above quantities for 5 servings so each quantity needed to be divided by 8 and then multiplied by 5 to get required quantities for my preparation. Accordingly, my math proficiency came handy there and I had the following quantities with me. China grass – 15 × (5/8) = 9.4 or little less than 10 tablespoons; Sugar – 18 × (5/8) = 11.2 tablespoons; Milk – 4 × (5/8) = 2.5 cups; almonds blanched – 2 × (5/8) = 1.25 tablespoons; Leeches – 500 × (5/8) = 310 grams; Pineapple tidbits – 500 × (5/8) = 310 grams; Seedless grapes – 300 × (5/8) = 180 grams; Vanilla essence – 2.5 × (5/8) = 1.5 drops. I need not say that my dessert was utterly delicious and mouth-watering. Thereafter I tried many other recipes and most of those were highly appreciated by my friends too. Math in Calculation of Body Mass Index I had put a considerable weight over last couple of years. My family physician told me that I must reduce weight because it might give rise to blood pressure, diabetes and develop heart issues. My doctor suggested me to reduce my diet such that it did not exceed 1800 calories per day. She asked me to bring body mass index (BMI) less than 26 for a healthy living (About BMI for Adults, 2011). First of all, I needed to know about my current BMI. She gave me the BMI formula as per the following. BMI = Weight in kilograms / (Height in meter) 2 I knew my weight was 92 kilograms and height 5 ft and 8 inches. To calculate my BMI, I needed to convert my height in meters. I knew that there are 12 inches in a foot and 1 meter equals to 3.28 feet. So my height in feet is 5+ (8/12) or 5.666 feet. To convert my height into meter, I needed to divide it by 3.28. Thus, my height in meter would be 5.666/3.28 = 1.727 Applying now these parameters in BMI formula, I got BMI= 92/ (1.727)2 = 92/2.982 = 30.85 Doctor suggested me to bring my BMI to 26; it was obvious that I brought my weight down to a figure so that by above formula my BMI became 26. Putting the figures in the BMI formula, my weight needed to be, BMI × (height in meters) 2 = 26 × (2.982) = 77.5 kilograms. That simply meant that, I needed to reduce my weight by 14.5 (92 - 77.5) kilograms. This insight helped me to reduce my diet. Weight and Calorie Calculations I had a target of reducing my weight by 14.5 kilograms or 14,500 grams before me. I decided to reduce my weight by at least 200 grams daily. I could calculate number of days required to reduce my weight. No. of days required = 14,500/200 or about 73 days. I needed to have a strict diet regime for this. I needed some more information on diet. On consultation, my dietician informed me that carbohydrate and proteins contain 4 calories per gram and fat contains 9 calories per gram. That simply meant that I needed to cut down on my intake of fats as much as possible. My dietician asked me to have 50% carbs, 20% fats and 30% proteins in my diet. Accordingly, I worked out to have (1800 × 0.5) = 900 calories from carbs, (1800 × 0.2) = 360 calories from fats and (1800 × 0.3) = 540 calories from proteins. I could further calculate my intake of carbohydrate, fat and proteins in grams as per the following. Carbohydrates– 900/4 = 225 grams Fats – 360/9 = 40 grams and Proteins – 540/9 = 60 grams Needless to say that enforcing this diet regime strictly, I could reach to my targeted weight in almost 60 days. Math in My Job My grasp in math came handy when I needed to calculate the number of employees required to handle a decreased volume due to change in customer service model. I was in charge of process improvement department that moved incoming calls from ACH customer services to Client Delivery Services. The Service Model aimed at providing first contact resolution for the client. I had following details with me. The change brought about a reduction in call volume from 60,000 calls to 20,000 calls a month. Each call was needed to be serviced within 2 minutes and 50 seconds. Each associate or agent was supposed to handle 80 calls per day with all necessary research between the calls. Based on this information, I was required to calculate how many ACH staff could be eliminated. The shift duration was 8 hours excluding break-timings and the month had 21 business or working days. My calculation went as per follows. The available total seconds with each associate were 8 × 60 × 60 (total hours × minutes × seconds) = 28,800 Assuming each associate took full allotted time of 2 minutes and 50 seconds to handle each call, when converted in seconds it came to 170 seconds. No. of calls that could be handled by each associate per day = 28,800/170=169 However, each associate needed to complete other research in between the calls; in reality, they would service 50 percent of the above maximum possible calls. Thus, each associate would handle only 80 calls in a day and that was an official requirement too. Monthly call volume was 20,000 calls in 21 days. Each day, average volume was 20,000/21 = 953 calls Keeping 20 percent extra cushioning for most busy days in a month, volume could be around 953 × 1.2 = 1140 calls in a day. With each associate handling 80 calls a day, the total staff requirement was 1140/80 =14.25 or 14 employees for this particular job. That was how we reduced our staff to only14 people removing excess staff employed in this particular process. Conclusion Since my early childhood I have always enjoyed the math and its applicability in my personal and professional life. Math has come to my rescue as and when I need to take a crucial decision of life whether small or big. In fact, it has helped me in my career enormously. It is a fact that math is the only field, which has a universal appeal without any barriers of race, creed, language or culture. Math is a veritable play with numbers and numbers cannot go wrong in its final outcome. The competency in math is crucial for a smooth sailing in life. References About BMI for Adults (2011). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved August 8, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html Mathematics Quotes (2012). Pythagoras. Oklahoma State University. Retrieved August 7, 2012 from http://www.math.okstate.edu/~wli/teach/fmq.html Read More

Thus, I arrived at the figure of 680+300= 980 miles that our rental car would run around in our outing. Based on this, I needed to calculate the gas consumption and its cost, given that Honda gave fuel economy of 36 miles per gallon. Consumption of gas = total running / fuel economy = 980/36 = 27.22 gallons. In those days, gas would sell at $1.2 per gallon. Hence, expense toward gas would be 27.22 ×1.2 = $32.66. Car rentals for four days would be 20 × 4 = $80 Total expense on transportation would be 32.

66 + 80 = $112.66 Dividing the expense among four of us, each one needed to bear the cost of 112.66/4 = $ 28.16. Adding the cost of hotel rooms and food expenses on this, I got the fair idea what we needed to have in our pocket before starting this tour. Math did help me in planning and preparing a budget for the tour. Math in Recipe Preparation I am fond of cooking and love preparing, serving and eating desserts. A couple of years back, I came across a recipe from an East Indian author. The name of the recipe was Almond Jelly with Fruit Cocktail.

The recipe had 8 ingredients and the preparation was given to serve 8 people. Since we were 5 people in the family and I was making it for the first time, I decided to go for quantity that was enough for 5 people. The recipe had the following ingredients. China grass-- 15 tablespoons; Sugar- 18 tablespoons; Milk-- 4 cups; almonds blanched -- 2 tablespoons, Leeches- 500 grams; Pineapple tidbits-- 500 grams; Seedless Grapes-- 300 grams; Vanilla essence – 2 to 3 drops. I had to adjust the above quantities for 5 servings so each quantity needed to be divided by 8 and then multiplied by 5 to get required quantities for my preparation.

Accordingly, my math proficiency came handy there and I had the following quantities with me. China grass – 15 × (5/8) = 9.4 or little less than 10 tablespoons; Sugar – 18 × (5/8) = 11.2 tablespoons; Milk – 4 × (5/8) = 2.5 cups; almonds blanched – 2 × (5/8) = 1.25 tablespoons; Leeches – 500 × (5/8) = 310 grams; Pineapple tidbits – 500 × (5/8) = 310 grams; Seedless grapes – 300 × (5/8) = 180 grams; Vanilla essence – 2.5 × (5/8) = 1.5 drops. I need not say that my dessert was utterly delicious and mouth-watering.

Thereafter I tried many other recipes and most of those were highly appreciated by my friends too. Math in Calculation of Body Mass Index I had put a considerable weight over last couple of years. My family physician told me that I must reduce weight because it might give rise to blood pressure, diabetes and develop heart issues. My doctor suggested me to reduce my diet such that it did not exceed 1800 calories per day. She asked me to bring body mass index (BMI) less than 26 for a healthy living (About BMI for Adults, 2011).

First of all, I needed to know about my current BMI. She gave me the BMI formula as per the following. BMI = Weight in kilograms / (Height in meter) 2 I knew my weight was 92 kilograms and height 5 ft and 8 inches. To calculate my BMI, I needed to convert my height in meters. I knew that there are 12 inches in a foot and 1 meter equals to 3.28 feet. So my height in feet is 5+ (8/12) or 5.666 feet. To convert my height into meter, I needed to divide it by 3.28. Thus, my height in meter would be 5.666/3.28 = 1.

727 Applying now these parameters in BMI formula, I got BMI= 92/ (1.727)2 = 92/2.982 = 30.85 Doctor suggested me to bring my BMI to 26; it was obvious that I brought my weight down to a figure so that by above formula my BMI became 26. Putting the figures in the BMI formula, my weight needed to be, BMI × (height in meters) 2 = 26 × (2.982) = 77.5 kilograms. That simply meant that, I needed to reduce my weight by 14.5 (92 - 77.5) kilograms. This insight helped me to reduce my diet. Weight and Calorie Calculations I had a target of reducing my weight by 14.

5 kilograms or 14,500 grams before me. I decided to reduce my weight by at least 200 grams daily. I could calculate number of days required to reduce my weight. No.

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