Unit 6 Relevance by Hannah Lee
Many students ponder how math can be used in real life. However, math, including Geometry, can be used nearly every day in life.
Turning Sketches into Realities
Architects and interior designers use the idea of proportions and similar figures every time they go to work. First, they sketch blueprints of the building or the interior of the building that they will soon begin constructing. However, in order to make a sketch into a reality, they have to use scale factors and proportional relationships to scale the building or the interior of the building to its real-world size. You see, architects and interior designers simply cannot sketch the blueprint of the building or the interior of the building in its real-life size. If they were to do such thing, they would need a enormous piece of paper. Therefore, proportions and similar figures are what makes the house you are living in and the interior of your house a reality.
Picture from: https://architectinperson.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/main.jpg
Picture from: https://architectinperson.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/main.jpg
A Look into Map-making
In addition to architects and interior designers, map-makers use the idea of proportions and similar polygons and figures daily. Contrary to architects and interior designers, map-makers have the scale something as big as the world to the pieces of paper that show an accurate depiction of the world. In order to do this, map-makers use scale factors to dilate this huge figure to something small. (Notice how there is always a key or legend in the map that shows how many miles are in a inch or centimeter.) This is another example of how the math we learn at school can easily be applied to things that we see and, possibly, even use every day.
Picture from: http://stanfords.s3.amazonaws.com/coverage/148287_worldmap1920_cov.jpg
Picture from: http://stanfords.s3.amazonaws.com/coverage/148287_worldmap1920_cov.jpg
From Triangles to Houses
Furthermore, carpenters use right triangle trigonometry in their field of work. When making cabinets and other parts of the house, carpenters use right triangle trigonometry to get the best measurement of the height, width, and length as well as other proportions. Carpenters, like most jobs, cannot "guesstimate" the measurement and hope that it will all work out well in the end. They have to use math to provide the most accurate information that end up making the house that you live in today.
Picture from: http://www.jasonrawson.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/carpenter.jpg
Picture from: http://www.jasonrawson.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/carpenter.jpg
Engineering One Step at a Time
Finally, mechanical engineers also use right triangle trigonometry in their wide range of work. By designing and building a wide variety of machines, engineers have to be able to calculate the angle at which something must be at if they want to attain a certain height and vice versa, thus requiring right triangle trigonometry. Without mechanical engineers, many things would not be designed, including engines and personal computers. Therefore, think about it. Right triangle trigonometry might be much more important and necessary than what you might believe.
Picture from: http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/03/engineering-blueprint.jpg
Picture from: http://thenextweb.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/03/engineering-blueprint.jpg