Math Will Rock My World - Extra Credit

Math Will Rock My World – Extra Credit by User:ThePlaz --Plaz 21:23, 3 April 2006 (EDT)

This is an extra credit report I had to do in response to the article Math Will Rock Your World the BusinessWorld Cover story from JANUARY 23, 2006 for IAG 2H in 9th Grade. Original Article PDF

A PDF version of this work is available here: Image:Math Will Rock My World – Extra Credit.pdf

Math is transforming industries around the world. Entrepreneurs and big companies are coming up with formulas to help manage mounds of data. The relationship and meanings between words and sentences can not be normally discovered. However, Neal Goldman has developed a system where every thought in an article becomes a line in a polytope. The software can then measure the relationships between the different points in the polytope.

There has never been a better time for mathematicians, the article states. Online, we accumulate vast amounts of data. This data must be analyzed by complicated formulas and algorithms. Competent mathematicians are needed to program and run these formulas, as well as analyze the results.

Math is helping companies and the government build vast profiles about us from the scraps of data they find. All of the information in one place might invade our privacy or might be used to send us targeted advertisements. E-Loan advertises on-line, and uses math and formulas to help it bid on keywords for the best return on its investment.

Math is also being used to extract meaning out of vast amounts of unstructured data, or things like photographs and videos. Analytics also need to program for the unpredictability of human beings. Many new mathematicians are coming from outside the United States. The US needs to revamp the mathematics curriculum to breed better mathematicians.

The demand for mathematicians is great now. New math grads are receiving standard offers from Google and Yahoo! for six figure salaries. And there still are not enough math gurus to meet the demand. There are only about 5,000 top mathematicians in the world.

I liked this article, although I found it to be typical of a news article. I already know a lot about this subject and how mathematical models are used everywhere. This article, like others where I am very familiar with the subject, seems to make it too easy and dumb down concepts. I would have liked a more mathematical explanation. Also, it goes off onto privacy and how this technology will be used to fight terrorism. I know the public and especially venture capitalists like to hear about this and that machine that fights terrorism, and is eligible for some big government check. I tired of all this terrorism-fear stuff. Also privacy concerns turn up in every article I ever read. Privacy is dead, get over it! (Read this: http://simonvox.blogspot.com/2006/01/privacy-is-dead-get-over-it-lets-focus.html )

I think this was a good article for me to read. I am interested in the power of math and how that can shape business. I have also read about entrepreneurs who develop new software and computer products. I do use formulas when I program calculator games. I develop complicated formulas to return the players score dependant on their score in the last round, average score, level of difficulty, and number of incorrect guesses. Calculator and really any type of programming requires the use of math and logic.

I also use math to display graphs of information, such as website revenue per day. I also use conditional formatting to highlight above average results in tables. Math is also used in encryption technology, like that featured on the Security Now Podcast. (http://www.grc.com/SecurityNow.htm)