Why is math important?

This question bothers us even more nowadays. Every day we have plenty of gadgets that can solve even the most complex math problems for us in mere seconds. So why should we sweat at all? The explanations of the teachers either exaggerate the importance of math in everyday life or look like fairy tales starting with “If you get lost on a desert island with no gadgets…”. Seriously, no one buys this now. The only purpose of math in school is writing math essays, solving problems, and getting marks. Or… is it?

Let’s say it clear: there are lots of programs, from the basic calc to MathCAD, that allow us to skip most of the counting and just get a result instantly. You definitely may just ignore most of the math except basic counting. But it will cost you money. And a whole lot. The essays on mathematics you probably hate should give you the main skill: the gut feeling of rightness or wrongness of things happening to you and seeing math in everyday life. Sounds unfamiliar? Then imagine an old person who gets a tablet into their hands. This person definitely can write, they know what they want to Google. But will it be easy for them to use the search and get exactly what they want, not just a bunch of random results? We don’t think so. When you do the math, the same thing happens. You may skip the boring process of counting, but you should know WHAT to count.

We all know the school problems listed in the textbooks. Who needs to calculate the speed of the train heading north and the train heading south if we can just look at our GPS and get the exact time of the train coming to your station? But such problems are (no pun intended) the problems of the school program. Lots of math essay examples are really dull and – what is much more important – absolutely disconnected from real life. If you aren’t Steven Hawking or Andrea Ghez, there are not many fascinating things in figures and equations. But the game changes when you are presented with the good old real-life examples. When you need to figure out how much paint you need to repaint your living room, the calculation itself can be done by any gadget in a second. Your math essays teach you what has to be added, subtracted, divided, or multiplied to get the right result. You should know what to do, therefore you can delegate the routine to the machine.

Where do you need math in everyday life?

Skipping the most obvious examples like budget planning (that needs more management than math skills and is already covered by lots of semi-automatic apps), the most important math problem in adult life is doing taxes. It may look simple, but the quantity of mathematic operations you perform is amazing. And you need to do it regularly!

Another field where math comes in extremely handy is housekeeping. If you have your own house, you know how many things need fixing, reshaping, adjusting, or upgrading. Sometimes you can’t just drive to IKEA and find a ready-made solution. If you need a labyrinth for your cat, a custom-sized cupboard, a fancy rocking chair, or whatever else, your options are either pay a lot of money to professionals for the non-standard job or apply some math, common sense, and creativity to create something truly outstanding and fitting all your needs. The perfect blueprint and the visualization of your idea (and the costs and materials needed to make it real) need a lot of math. The more you can calculate, the more you can do.

Moreover, if you practice math enough (say, after a few dozens of essays on mathematics), you’ll develop a kind of a gut feeling of miscalculations. You won’t get a superpower of calculating extremely complex problems without touching pen and paper, but, subconsciously, you will see the figures and feel that something isn’t quite right here. You will see that you are paying a little bit extra, even if there is a laundry list of purchases in your receipt. Or you will roughly calculate the square of your new house and estimate the costs for heating and repainting even without exact measurements taken and without thinking about it too hard. The math skill, as much as any other skill, slowly transfers from hard work to simple action and then to something you just do. Think about it like driving a car. After a few months, you just feel it like you feel your body, not thinking about the right gear or pedal.

What about school math? How can we write all that essays about mathematics?

At least to get good marks. A mathematics essay may look like a complicated task: we understand how to write a lot of words about literature, history, and the other subjects that require… well, words. But math is all about figures, formulae and equations, and other non-wordy stuff. So how should a perfect math essay look?

All the math essay examples show us one thing: there should actually be math. It isn’t enough to write about the importance of math or its history or the famous mathematicians. You should do some math. It may be a single problem or a couple of related ones, but the thing is to prove the statement from your introduction with formulae, figures, and calculations.

It’s hard to write about something no one mentioned before in math (people usually get Nobel Prize for that), but the topic and the results should be presented in your own words. Surely, if you can think about a non-standard approach to the well-known problem it will earn you extra points for your math essay. But if you are just using the theme from your course it’s also totally fine. Plagiarism is a big no-no and we are sure that we are just reminding you of something you already know.

Another thing that people often forget while thinking about how to write a math paper is citing your references. Even if you use something that is common knowledge nowadays, someone (possibly an Ancient Greek) has invented that, and providing a proper quotation will both show your respect to that person and prove that you have actually done the research. Moreover, the proper quotation is a must in academic texts, so if your teacher wants you to learn how to structurize your essays properly, they will be pleased to see it. It’s always good to re-check the demands on quotations and do them in the right style.

Even if it’s still an essay on mathematics it is written with words and should be readable. Try reading it aloud in front of the mirror. Ask a friend to read it or to become your test audience. The great essay allows the listeners to clearly define the introduction, conclusion, and all the main paragraphs (and, of course, understand the main idea). Pay extra attention to reading formulae. You may need some additional materials such as cards or slides to make them more understandable to the audience because our brains are trained to recognize usual words, not math language.

Talking about additional content: include everything that will help the audience to better understand you. Lots of math essay examples include dozens of figures, diagrams, and other stuff that makes the subject simple. Try to keep the simple ratio: one figure, picture, or diagram per one page of text or one paragraph (depending on what is shorter). This approach will keep your audience entertained and engaged.

So, how to write a math essay actually?

The exact plan is similar to any other essay on any other subject. You should choose the topic first. There aren’t a lot of math essay topics that weren’t covered before, but don’t worry too much about it. The essay should show that you understand the topic you write about. It shouldn’t be 100% original research. You may choose to write an essay on mathematician with their biography, main discoveries, and their usage in real-life math problems. Or you may simply take the problem from your class and show the way of solving it in the finest details. Anyway, the topics of the math essay start from picking the right problem.

Choose your target audience. Knowing it you will be able to choose the proper language, structure, and simplicity. Are you going to show the paper to the teacher alone? Should you read it to fellow students? Or should you explain the math of your level to the beginners, so everything should be as understandable as possible? Keeping in mind your target audience is one of the essential tasks for the essay writer.

Outline the structure. The standard parts of the essays are quite similar to each other, so you can look at any math essay introduction example to get the idea. You may keep the same style but change the main idea and not bother about the non-standard beginning and ending too much. Still, if your teacher is liberal and values your self-expression, you may take a bit more creative approach. It will wake your audience up and make it listen.

Make sure that you are on the same page with your audience. Give an outline of the concept or theory you are going to talk about. An introduction is a good place for it. When everyone knows what you mean, you may start developing your idea, add examples and pieces of evidence, quotes, and references, and anything you need to support your claim. Proving (or busting) these claims concludes the math essay.

Try to make the transitions between the parts smooth. They should be naturally connected as if you just tell your audience about the things you learned. Try to include some facts not presented in your classroom to keep people engaged. They don’t want to listen to something they have heard already. Give them something to think over (and show your teacher that you did a bit more research than expected).

Summing up all the math essay stuff

Writing an essay about mathematics is in some aspects easier than any other paper. The figures and formulae do half of the work for you. Your main goal is to choose just the right problem: easy enough to understand it well and hard enough to get a good mark for it. Another critical part is always checking your calculations. Nothing can ruin a perfect essay as painfully as a miscalculation. The math is tricky stuff.

The general essay writing rules will also come in very handy. Don’t be shy and have a look at other math essay examples to get some ideas or references from them. Maybe, you’ll find the topic no one has written about yet! Good luck!

Mathematics is the queen of the exact sciences. The exact sciences are the sciences of logic, facts, and common sense. Mathematics is the most exact science that can enrich humanity with new knowledge.

Why do I love mathematics?

I love mathematics because it disciplines and educates the mind. You can accidentally win the lottery, you can get any good, but you can’t accidentally become the owner of a mind. And without intelligence it is easy to derail any endeavor.

One often hears the opinion: I’m not going to go to the mathematics department, why do I need mathematics? I’m going to sing! But this is a mistaken belief, without the skills of mathematical thinking in the XXI century it is difficult to live. Mathematics helps develop a number of human qualities, such as the ability to analyze, the ability to apply their knowledge in practice, to find patterns, think strategically and logically.

Why do I love mathematics? Because it is the “helper” of the other sciences. Mathematics belongs to those sciences that are called “fundamental”, its methods are successfully used in physics, chemistry, statistics, natural sciences. Mathematics helps scientists understand the world around them. Without mathematics there would be no high-precision medicine, flights into space, grandiose constructions, discoveries. Thanks to mathematics, people avoided thousands of unthinkable, dangerous, expensive experiments and experiments.

Mathematics has moved humanity forward. Stomping in place means falling behind. What is mathematics for? To keep civilization moving forward.

No one is surprised to hear the following. Scientists report the discovery of a new planet or star that has not been seen by man and the conclusion of its existence is based on mathematical calculations and computer modeling. This is an example of the possibilities mathematics opens up for us.

…Where does mathematics begin? With counting. A child counts and shifts molds, candy, toys, books. A child plays kindergarten. How many kindergartners does he have? While playing, children make their own inferences, try to reason logically, analyze. The simplest math needs observation and experimentation. Furthermore. The desire to develop, improve inherent in man. The main thing is to plant the right seedlings.

Yes, mathematics is not likely to be a profession for many of us, but if one has made a careful study of it, one is on a particular stage of development from which one is unlikely to (in most cases) get out. And whatever he does he will try to do deliberately, to try to find patterns, to try to keep certain sequences in his head.

MY ESSAY ABOUT MATHEMATICS