High school maths was a bore, let’s face it. Unless you were a trigonometry whiz who loved solving mathematical puzzles your maths lessons were probably spent writing notes to your BFF about how much you hate right angles.
To add fire to that maths flame that already burns so bright for me (to get into my sixth I had to get a C, I got a D…twice – eventually passing with the help of a tutor) where or when have those ‘essential maths skills’ come into use in adult life? Have I ever used Pi when researching a story. No. Will I ever figure out the circumference of a circle? Never. Do I need to know all my times tables backwards…okay maybe yes, but still. Most maths = pointless. It’s a bold statement I know, but here’s all the maths problems that are completely pointless in everyday life now we’re no longer wearing (school) uniforms.
Trigonometry
Like, who are you and why do we need to know about you? I had to google what this even was because, being the maths dud that I am, I’ve forgotten. Apparently it’s about the relationship involving lengths and angles of a triangle. Is this bringing back memories of revision about sin, cos and tan? Thought as much. Sin was opposite or was it adjacent?! Who the heck knows and who the heck even cares. Not me.
Algebra
Ah algebra, you difficult thing you. The study of mathematical symbols that don’t make any sense and have no real purpose in everyday life. X – 27 = 3 and all of those secret equations that seemed really difficult at the time but now we’re looking at it are actually pretty simple. Maybe if I took maths GCSE for the third time round I’d pass with flying colors? Doubt that.
Geometry
Wikipedia tells me that geometry is a branch of maths concerned with questions of shape, size and relative positions of figures….Yeh, I’ve got nothing.
Fractions
Ok so I actually wish I’d paid more attention in fractions class. Who remembers those lessons where you were asked ‘if Tom cuts a cake into three equal pieces, and he eats 1/ 3 of a cake, how much cake is there left?’ That’s pretty useful advice that could come in handy at birthdays, Dominoe pizza parties and spontaneous food arguments with your flatmate about who took the bigger half of the garlic bread.
Volume
Seriously, who needs to know the amount of 3-dimensional space an object occupies? WHO. I think there was something to remember about cubic centimeters or inches but to be honest pizza has just arrived in the office and I don’t care. Sorry former maths teacher Mr Brigden, if you’re reading this. Maths, be gone.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.