Understanding maths in Life, Business and Property
Understanding maths in Life, Business and Property
Rishi Sunak has suggested that everyone should continue to be taught maths until they are 18 years old. The suggestion may have some merit however in my experience maths is only part of the issue. It is the lack of practical understanding of how the maths actually works in life, business, and property.
I confess that I am not an academic, I never understood school and the school never understood me. It is the practical application of the likes of maths that fascinates me.
It is understanding that what at face value may appear to be the same, is in fact completely different and getting them confused, is extremely dangerous.
In business for example, the misunderstanding behind the difference between Profit and Loss and Cash Flow (all the same invoices and costs) can be catastrophic.
In the world of Property, the differences between Cost, Price and Worth, are essential to understand.
There are also multiple practical application of maths in any form of construction.
In many aspects, Maths also unfortunately crosses over into the written or spoken word and understanding the question is key. If you do not understand the question, it is impossible to get the correct answer.
My favourite example of this is the story of 3 friends. They arrive at a hotel and there is only on 1 room left. They agree with the receptionist that they will share the room at a cost of ￡30 for the night.
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Simple maths ￡30 between 3 equals ￡10 each, which they pay up front.
The manager however reminds the receptionist that there is a ￡5 discount on each room that night and they need to refund the friends.
The receptionist is going up to the room, to refund the money and thinks ￡5 is not easily dividable by 3 and the friends don’t know there is a discount. So the receptionist thinks, if I give them ￡1 each, they will be happy and I will keep ￡2.
All is making mathematical sense up until this point, or is it?
Ok - so the bill was ￡30 but each friend has a ￡1 back meaning they only paid ￡9 each.
3 x ￡9 =￡27
Plus, the ￡2 the receptionist has =￡29
So, what happened to the other ￡1? Or what is the correct maths?
Maths alone is not enough, it is easy to be conned and mislead, it is therefore the practicality of maths that needs to be taught.