Thursday 23 August 2007

The importance of MATHS in life

As opposed to what I usually write here (which are mostly boring routines of an actuarial student), let me try to enlighten you why you should do your maths homework at school and pay attention to what your maths teacher is talking in class.

My housemate Harvin was isolated from the world of maths lesson and homework for many years. Why? She is from art-stream, so obviously she didn't have any idea about additional maths and what more to say SAM Specialist Mathematics.

Few hours ago she knocked on my door and asked me to help her calculate her pay for this week. She looked so so confused that I agreed to help with the maths of this.

She worked for 12 hours and 45 minutes for this week. Her pay is $16.50 per hour. How much should she be receiving? Easy question???

You might be asking, is this even a problem? Any primary school kid (especially those from chinese school who are trained everyday with lots and lots of maths practice) would come out with an answer in at most few minutes. Well, I can do it in less than 5 seconds with a calculator!!

Her boss calculated and argued that she should be getting 12.45 x 16.50 !!!!!
Such a joke rite?

But Harvin was unsured whether her boss was right because the maths seemed convincing to her. See how you may be exploited outside without maths knowledge.

I just told her: Look at your watch, 1 hour has got 60 minutes, not 100 minutes

And guess what, she was enlightened.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

ask her .. go for ur tuition ....

i wondering how she pass her *per-u