Applying Algebra To Everyday Life

Much more than finding x, algebra forms the basis to describe any process that has variation. Everyday numbers like money and time are common variables. In this book, key concepts from algebra, such as lines, polynomials and the quadratic formula, are shown at work in surprising applications including industrial baking, robotics, and the natural world.

Modeling offers us a way to explain past natural and cultural phenomena, and perhaps more importantly, it gives us mathematical forecasts for the future. This title explores familiar models such as linear regression and computer modeling to show how some aspects of everyday life, such as weather, can be shaped and predicted by mathematics.

Functions, the language of advanced mathematical processes, model input and output. Some functions are direct, such as the result of pressing a computer key. Others are more complex, such as investigating car crashes or launching a satellite. This book discusses how the inputs and outputs of functions are at play in our daily lives.

The fundamental shapes of geometry can be built into the grand sweeps of the Sydney Opera House or something as small as a snowflake. This title takes geometric concepts like polygons, platonic solids, and angles and demonstrates their myriad appearances in the world around us. From the Great Pyramid of Giza to sinking a bank shot in pool, geometry abounds.

Stopping a plague (even zombies), tomorrow’s likelihood of rain, and buying a lottery ticket are united by chance. Wildlife conservation, a baseball box score, and governmental spending are united by the need to record numbers. Statistics and probability measure the current state of something and the relative likelihood of potential future states. This book will explore how common experiences are counted, evaluated, and used to make intelligent decisions for the future based on uncertain outcomes.

Although we learn the fundamentals of counting and measuring in our early years, these concepts form the foundation of complex processes, from mountain climbing and skydiving to video game design. This title examines the seemingly simple ideas of number and quantity and shows how they are used in real life.

Two experienced math educators help the average reader discover not only the everyday usefulness of math but the fun that comes from mastering the basics of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and more. If you think of mathematics as a series of pointless classroom exercises without much relevance to real life, this book will change your mind. As the authors show, math is deeply embedded in almost every aspect of daily life--from managing your personal finances, making consumer purchases, and sharpening your computational skills, to learning to apply mathematical concepts that will give you a better grasp of both ordinary and extraordinary events and help you better appreciate the world we live in. With some basic geometry under your belt, you'll discover that there is an optimal point on a soccer field from which to shoot a goal. And you'll be more clever with the gears of a bike. If you like to play cards or go to the casino, knowing something about probability will give you an edge. You'll also have an enhanced understanding of the "whispering effect" inside the Capitol rotunda, why a car's headlights are so bright, and even why sewer covers are round. After reading this entertaining and instructive book, you'll come away with a whole new awareness of how elegantly mathematics explains everyday experiences and observations--from present day items to classical art and architecture.

In the last ?fteen years two seemingly unrelated problems, one in computer science and the other in measure theory, were solved by amazingly similar techniques from representation theory and from analytic number theory. One problem is the - plicit construction of expanding graphs («expanders»). These are highly connected sparse graphs whose existence can be easily demonstrated but whose explicit c- struction turns out to be a dif?cult task. Since expanders serve as basic building blocks for various distributed networks, an explicit construction is highly des- able. The other problem is one posed by Ruziewicz about seventy years ago and studied by Banach [Ba]. It asks whether the Lebesgue measure is the only ?nitely additive measure of total measure one, de?ned on the Lebesgue subsets of the n-dimensional sphere and invariant under all rotations. The two problems seem, at ?rst glance, totally unrelated. It is therefore so- what surprising that both problems were solved using similar methods: initially, Kazhdan’s property (T) from representation theory of semi-simple Lie groups was applied in both cases to achieve partial results, and later on, both problems were solved using the (proved) Ramanujan conjecture from the theory of automorphic forms. The fact that representation theory and automorphic forms have anything to do with these problems is a surprise and a hint as well that the two questions are strongly related.