Tuesday, November 17, 2009

All Right, It's the Teacher in Me Coming Out of Her Cocoon


When I used to be a special education teacher, one of my duties was to teach a math class to my students. As in all areas of the student body, one of the complaints I heard the most frequently was, "Why do I have to learn this? I'll never use it again!"
I know, we've all said that, and karma comes back to bite us.

My passion now is melting glass into beads and small sculptures. Oh, my, math, math, math.

What size mandrel do I need: 1/16". 5/64", 3/32"? Hmmmm.

What is the COE (Coefficient of Expansion) of the glass? If I use different COE's, my beads will crack and break. (All right, on that one physics is involved, but Math and physics work together.)

I thought I would make a list, and, if you like, you can add to this list of ways to use math in every day life, whether it's in your crafts or your cooking. Here's also a great interactive site you might want to visit. It's called Math In Daily Life. You'll be amazed at the ways those things you learned in math class help us get through our days.

My Math List:
melting glass
heat of my torch
kiln
cooking
measuring
quilting
calculating postage
computer programs that I use
measuring bead sizes
measuring time
calendars
temperatures inside and outside
sewing
buying clothes
buying shoes
using money
clothing sizes
shoe sizes
calculating gas mileage
paying taxes

That's just what I could think of in a minute. What can you add to the list?

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