Today I Learned
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Seriously… the Pythagorean Theorem is the single most important piece of practical math that can be easily taught to everyone.
And I just recently used it to measure the length of christmas lights I need for my roof, being 15 years out of school.
I'm a software engineer and I think one of my personal favorite random applications of Pythagoras/ trig was in my data visualization class back in scool. The assignment was to take a dataset of Soviet space launches with dogs and display it in an interactive approachable manner (ie less rigorous data science and more local science center), so I thought it would be fun to show rockets for each lauch and animate them rotating around the earth. Queue the trig to place each icon an appropriate distance (scaled to the launch height in my data), angle, and spacing from the earth.
I'll admit it doesn't come up all that often (in web development), but it's nice to have that foundational knowledge to dredge up when I need it.
And yet I’ve never needed it once in my life.
Wish instead of learning bullshit math, I was taught how to repair stuff around my house that I use everyday or a million other useful life knowledge.
It’s so easy, and the more the you advocate for removal of “useless” knowledge the happier these people are to get rid of it. And no, they won’t replace it with the other stuff. Good workshops in schools ain’t cheap but the people willing to fuck over their whole country sure are.
Besides, I never took a shop class and I figured out how to do so many things including complicated car repair and fixing my dishwasher. Your problem isn’t that one thing is useful and the other isn’t, it’s what appears to be your inherent lack of curiosity. Being exposed to information is a good thing. Plenty of people much smarter than you are very thankful for it, no need to be bitter.
I think perhaps it's lack of utility is more on account of the user than it is on the uses...
@PlasticLove This is a country that plans to send people into space in the next few years. Even basic trig in the unis matter.
You think the average citizen there is going to be sending people into space next year or something?
This isn’t something people need as general knowledge, schools are better used to prepare people for life.
Schools are better used to prepare people for your life, you mean.
I use it all the time. If you need a right angle, 3-4-5 gives you one, and that's Pythag, baybeee.
The primary reason to teach math is to instil a form of logical reasoning. For instance, Phytagoras theorem is typically the first introduction to formal proofs. It’s literally the antidote to much of the stupidity we are currently observing in the world.
Having said that, your response is particularly idiotic because Phytagoras theorem plays a crucial role in home improvement projects. The fact that you have never applied it in real life is likely why you cannot repair stuff in your house.
More generally, I use the knowledge I have attained from physics and mathematics when I repair stuff at home. Maybe the reason you have trouble with these things is because you didn’t pay attention in school?
FTFY
Honestly though, you don't know what you don't know, right? So nbd. But yeah, home improvement goes a lot smoother when you know your basic geometry math. So genuinely, I wish you were taught both.