Mathematical Culture and Thought

Mathematical Culture and Thought

Is Math Useful?

Document Type : Translation

Authors
F. Habibian Dehkordi
‎N‎. ‎ ‎Mirzasani
Faculty of Mathematics‎, ‎Statistic and Computer Science‎, ‎Semnan University‎, ‎Iran‎
10.30504/mct.2023.1326.1924
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to review a common question about mathematics, which is asked by different people in the society with various expressions such as "Is mathematics useful?", "What is the use of mathematics?", "How can mathematics be used?” and it is raised; The goal is for each person to be able to answer this question and gain an understanding of it. For this purpose, information and facts such as different uses of mathematics and mathematicians in times of war and some great achievements of pure mathematics for human civilization will be presented. There are also reasons for the necessity of benefiting all members of the society, including ordinary people and politicians, from mathematics, as well as some consequences of low mathematical literacy. In the following, some interesting things about the general public's lack of direct contact with mathematics, not having the slightest idea of ​​what mathematicians do, and the issue of encouraging optional mathematics learning are described. In the end, some experiences and activities of the author in the field of promoting and popularizing mathematics will be discussed.
Keywords
usefulness of mathematics
culture
applications of mathematics
popularization of
mathematics
voting
cryptography

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 20 September 2022
  • Revise Date 14 February 2023
  • Accept Date 25 March 2023
  • Publish Date 22 July 2024