Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Who wants to be a millionaire? YOU, duh! If you have caviar dreams and champagne wishes, take a look at this article. The cliff notes version of it is that a study was done comparing a couple's basic math skills and their wealth. The findings were a bit shocking. Couples who BOTH scored well on a simple numeracy (mathematical reasoning test) attain more wealth. How much more? When both spouses got all the questions right their wealth averaged 1.68 MILLION dollars! WHOA!

What were these questions? Must have been pretty tough, right? Maybe not. Take a look:

1.) If the chance of getting a disease is 10 percent, how many people out of 1,000 would be expected to get the disease?

2.) If five people all have the winning numbers in the lottery and the prize is $2 million, how much will each of them get?

3.) Let's say you have $200 in a savings account. The account earns 10 percent interest per year. How much would you have in the account at the end of two years?

Can you figure them out? I'll give you a hint: pencil and paper will do just fine. Most of these kinds of questions could be found in an 8th grade or Algebra textbook. 

What I take away from this article is this: You don't have to take Calculus 3 to make it in life. BUT you do need to have a good grasp on basic math and algebra concepts if you want the best chance to be a success. You read the article- when both spouses missed all three questions their wealth was MUCH lower. And before you think a $200,000 wealth total is a lot, consider that this is the total of all the things that a person has- money in the bank, cars, house, savings, etc. This amount of wealth is a small house and maybe a family car or two.

So be a smartie. And remember to marry one, too.  

P.S. I am sure you figured those questions out, but here are the answers: 1.) 100   2.) $400,000  3.) $242

Math in Fashion

A popular career choice for discerning young ladies is fashion design. The success of shows like Project Runway and Fashion Star have fueled interest in this profession. What gal wouldn't want to design her own clothes?

Before you load up your high school and college classes with nothing but "Sewing 101" and "Cotton for Dummies", consider taking that advanced algebra class. Why? You would be surprised how many ways designers use math everyday. From measurements, to prices, to shipping orders....they do it all. Check out this video of Chloe Dao, designer and winner of season 2 on Project Runway, explaining the ins and outs of daily life in her profession.

At the end of the video, she has a very typical designer problem- a garment she wants to make is too expensive! How can she make it more affordable? What will the costs need to be? What can she leave out?
Get a video of this challenge here. Are you up to it?

There you have it....betcha didn't know that math could be fashionable, did ya?

-Mrs. Meiergerd

Math, FTW!

It is months after our last presidential election, and I can't stop thinking about Nate Silver's big win. "But Mrs. Meiergerd, Barack Obama won the election."  To you, students, I say this: Obama may have won the presidency, but there was no one more victorious on Election night 2012 than Nate Silver. And math.

So who is this guy? Nate Silver is what I would like to call a "Mathemagician." Using his skills in calculus and multiple sources of polling data, he predicted not only that Obama would win the presidential election by quite a margin, but also which candidate would win each state. Look at this map comparing Silver's probabilities of who would win each state to the final outcome. Notice anything? I'll save you some time, the maps are identical. Nate Silver PREDICTED THE WINNER IN ALL 50 STATES. 

How did he do it? Silver combed through polling data in every state, deciding which polls were the most accurate and valid. He then averaged these polls to come up with a leader and thus his guess as to who would win the state. He didn't stop there. He also added a measure of his confidence in the polls from which he made his prediction, taking into account things like demographics and polling trends. All this data certainly gave election officials something to look at. You can see his blog (called Five Thirty Eight) and all of his data here.

So who cares? Well, it is a safe bet that officials on both sides of the political divide will be taking note of Nate Silver and his predictions in the future. His book "The Signal and the Noise: The Art and Science of Prediction" is likely to become a best seller. It is said that no one can predict the future- well, BOOYA, math just did. 

Mrs. Meiergerd

P.S. If politics aren't your thing, how about sports? Click here to take a look at Nate Silver's NCAA bracket predictions! 

"Why do we have to learn this stuff?" This is a question I hear every day from my beloved students. As a teacher, we often struggle to make real-world connections to our subject. "Math is the universal language." I tell them. "Whether you know it or not, it  makes the world go 'round." In this blog, I will strive to provide real-world examples of how math is used to shape and enhance our everyday lives.