Category: Math in Real Life

Ratio, Proportion, and YouTube Embedding

High School Mathematics, Math in Real Life

Sometimes, you will really appreciate if you are mathematically inclined. Knowing basic mathematics is a great advantage in many things – sometimes even in the simplest of things.

Happy Girl Hopscotch in Strawberry Free Creative Commons

All of us use mathematics in everyday life, but most of the time, only we who are mathematically inclined appreciate it. For example, I use math when I embed Youtube videos in my blogs; I have to customize the embed dimensions depending on the size of the blog page. A sample Youtube embed code is shown below. » Read more

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Gambling Mathematics: Why Will The Casino Win in the Long Run

High School Mathematics, Math in Real Life

Gambling in a casino and winning once or twice might hook you, but if you play often, there is a very small chance that you would win. Why? Because the games are mathematically designed for the casino to win.

To make it simple, let us use a simple die game for our discussion.  Two dice are rolled. If the sums of the number of dots are 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, and 12, the player wins. If the sums are 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, the house (the casino) wins. » Read more

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The Mathematics of Tenure, Car Lights, and Logic Gates

College Mathematics, Math in Real Life

In a state office, an employee maybe tenured if (1) he has passed the Career Service Examination, or (2) he has worked as a probationary employee for more than 10 years.

Notice that the employee maybe tenured if either one of the conditions above is satisfied. He may also be tenured if both conditions are satisfied. If we create a table and rephrase the statements above to question form, we can see that the only reason for an employee not to be tenured is if the answer to both questions is NO.

tenure-table

The first table is also the same as the table shown below.  In the second table,  the situation describes the relationship between a car’s ceiling light and its two doors. Unless the ceiling light is turned on or off manually, it will always be ON if both doors or one of the two doors is open. The only time that the light will be OFF is if the two doors are shut. » Read more

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