• Question: Do you need to use maths?

    Asked by 883cars23 to Andy on 19 Sep 2017.
    • Photo: Andy Woods

      Andy Woods answered on 18 Sep 2017:

      I use some maths all the time. It’s normally not too difficult. I don’t use all the really clever maths I learned at university but I do use GCSE/A Level maths quite regularly.

Comments

  • Photo: Greg

    Greg commented on :

    Yes I use maths all the time.

    My job is basically about sensing how radio waves interact with your body, so we can work out what’s going on inside you. I need to calculate how different types of waves travel through different types of tissue – muscle, fat etc – and how that will look when I measure it with an antenna. People have done experiments to tell me what I need to know, but transforming their results into something useful for me requires quite a lot of maths.

    Then when I’m designing the equipment I use to make and record these measurements, I need to make sure that all the different parts will work together: are they all at the right power level, will they do something funny to my signal, how do I transform the radio waves into something I can see on a screen. All that uses maths.

    Finally, I have to look at the finances of the project and whether we’re going to make our completion date. That uses maths too!

  • Photo: Ian

    Ian commented on :

    Yes but – the ‘heavy duty’ maths I used to have to do with calculus and things is now all done by computer – but I still have to understand what it’s doing even if I don’t have to know the equations any more or I’d have no idea if my results were right.
    Day to day work still involves a fair bit of arithmetic to work out how much of a chemical to add or how long something’s going to take.

  • Photo: Graham

    Graham commented on :

    Hi,
    Ohhhh yes, maths is SO crucial to Life.
    Maybe not the tricky stuff, ( like integration ) the simple adding /subtracting /multiplying/dividing is everywhere.
    ” If I buy a car for £1000, spend £500 on it, and then sell it for £2750, how much money have I made ? ”
    “How many of those cars do I need to sell to make £30,000 ? …and how much tax do I pay on that £30,000 if txed at 20% ? ”
    If I have an area measuring 3m by 5m, how many paving slabs ( measuring 600mmx600mm each ) do I need to cover it ?
    Or, if the power cable loses 0.2 volts per meter per amp flowing…if I have a cable that’s 30mtrs long, and has 32 amps flowing, what’s the volt drop over the 30mtrs ?

    it’s all basic maths….but…get it wrong, and serious things go wrong !