PICTURE ASSIGNMENT IN

MATHEMATICS

Submitted to:

MS. YAP

Submitted by:

KALEL XAVIER TIAMSON

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 WHY ARE NUMBERS IMPORTANT?

As humans we are obsessed with counting things. We keep track of the numbers in our
lives. We are always keeping score, measuring, recording and counting. For some of us the first
thing we do in the morning is check how our body mass relates to the law of gravity (hop on the
scale).

We measure how fast the wind blows, what time the sun rises and sets, and how warm or
cold it is outside. We even have names for special totals. Twelve is also known as a dozen, but a
baker’s dozen is 13. If a player scores three goals in a hockey game, we call that a hat trick. We
count the kilometres between towns.

We recognize birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones. We also keep track of the
days, years, and things like magazine issues.

Numbers are everywhere connected to everything we do. We use them to measure years,
months, weeks, days, hours, and seconds. We count them in dollars and cents. We measure in
feet, inches, meters and yards.

The food we eat has a caloric number attached to it.

We regard success and failure and distinguish ourselves according to the number of each.
We age by ever mounting time. We calculate and distribute. We find comfort in the fact that 2 +
2 will always equal 4.

Time gives us a schedule, a placement, the ability to organize. It also gives us

stress and can be more like a noose around our necks than a comfortable guide.
But no matter if your day is great or the worst of your life, it will still be just a
day, 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. You can’t slow it down, stop it or
reverse it. And it affects our emotional, spiritual state of being.
TIME
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 Some people are up at the crack of dawn. They start their day job at 7:30 AM. By the
time they are done with work, they drive their kids to various practices and jobs, cook dinner,
write and exercise, Sometimes they get done around 9:00 PM — That’s thirteen and a half hours
running and doing. Some days it’s longer than that depending on their writing schedule and
homework helping. Anyone in their house can confirm it’s best to leave me alone for at least
thirty minutes or suffer my wrath.

If you make six figures you’re If you’re making minimum wage

considered very successful by most
people and your life is probably
comfortable. Comfortable people
tend to smile more. These kinds of
numbers are good.
you are probably barely getting by
and are stressed out all the time.
Stress sucks. No one is walking
MONEY around saying, “man I wish I had
more stress in my life.”

WEIGHT
How many people look at the number on the scale and wish it would
go down ten… twenty…fifty pounds? Some people can be so dopey about
weight. Now, if the loss of five or ten pounds would solve world hunger,
then by all means.

How about if you’re sick? The lower scale numbers will have an alarmingly different
effect on you. We use the measurement of weight as a sign of health or a lack there of. When
new parents go to a check up, one of the first things done is weighing the little peanut. The first
thing the parents do when they leave is call the grandparents. And what’s the first thing they talk
about? Yuppers, it’s the baby’s weight. Or was that just us because of the enormity of my
babies? HA!

A person whose numbers on the scale go over what is considered to be a healthy weight,
get a different kind of report. As far as the scale goes, how do we know what numbers are the
good ones? We have charts and ratios, calculations and formulas, based on other numbers called
percentages, and we categorize ourselves into groups of the majority, the minority, or some

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sideshow weirdness. I say that because I was always freaky-weird-tall in comparison to other
girls my age.

We count them, mount them, stack ém, and keep track of

them. The more success we can count up, the better we feel.
And sure, why not. It’s okay to be proud of our
accomplishments. Our successes become a private little
parade in our heads with cheerleaders waving pom-poms
and holding signs that say, “well done! Keep going!
Awesome sauce!

Ugh. We count, stack and keep track of these suckers

too, maybe even more so. Failure is the glue on the bottom of
your shoe holding you back. The numbers of failures we have
make us feel bad about ourselves, which translates into,
moodiness, hostility and depression.

Kick off the glue-shoes, learn from mistakes and move on! Have you ever heard the term,
“chasing yourself in circles?” You don’t go anywhere in a circle except back to the same spots
you’ve already been. Stop counting all your failures.

Oh boy, I’ve really been feeling these numbers lately. My parents and a very dear friend
moved away recently. have *wails on floor like a fool* I
never felt the weight of I do stretching miles as much as
now. I do now.
But then there are other long miles that make us feel
fabulous; a trip overseas for vacation, a road trip to see
something on your bucket list or (if you are into it)
marathons.
Fun fact: The New York City Marathon is a 42, 195 meter, 26.2 mile race. The 2013
winner, Geoffrey Mutai, did it in 2:05:06. He set the record this past year running a 2:04 mile.
Wicked fast!!

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 This one’s worse than weight! LOL
I remember turning ten and thinking it was the absolute bestest day of my life. Whoot
hoot, double digits!

My dad once told me that he wished away a lot of time back then. As soon as he turned
ten he wanted to be thirteen. Once he was thirteen he wanted to be sixteen. At sixteen he wanted
to be twenty-one. When I was a baby he wanted to get past the not sleeping phase. When I
accomplished that, he wanted out of the diaper phase. With maturity he said he learned to stop
wishing time away. You can’t get it back.

Age also marks places in time. We do ritualistic, traditional things based on age. Why do
we keep track of our age? Who said that was important? One year olds usually have a big family
party. Parents: skip the clowns. Trust me on this.

When you’re five you begin kindergarten. At seven you make your First Holy
Communion. At thirteen, you have a Confirmation.

I could go on and on about numbers, highways, routes, longitude, latitude, days and
months. Why is it so important for us to know where we are, what time it is, how long till the
next thing we do, count downs, count ups, lengths, distances, spaces…

Does it really matter? I guess in some ways. I mean, if I don’t keep track of the hour the I
will be late to school and my parent will be late to work.

We need it to find point B from point A. Otherwise we might end up in the ocean.

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 A symbol that stands for a number is called a numeral. Without numerals, counting &
measuring would be very problematic! Try using letters of the alphabet as numerals & you'll see
how much more confusing math would be! (Well, they're already used as variables in Algebra &
such sometimes, but numerals are different from variables!) Math is confusing enough for some
of us already!

Numbers are a universal language. Whoever you are and where ever you are, 2 = 1 plus
another. If you’re human, you know this, and it works. I get that. I’m on board with that. What I
don’t want is to be defined by my number (age), charts (height & weight), location (longitude
and latitude), my ethnicity (majority/minority), or my calculations (success & failures).

And I don’t want to define or judge anyone else by a poll taken or a survey done or a
room full of some bodies that determined it to be a certain way based on what’s normal or
acceptable.

Normal? What the heck is normal anymore? I think we have to make our own normal. If
you’re not hurting anyone, including yourself, and you’re leading your life by a moral compass–
that should be the normal.

A moral compass does not have arrows pointing North, South, East and West, but rather,
Kind, Loving, Generous, and Gentle, which equates to a multiplier of peace. I’d like for that to
be my guide.

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AS A TEENAGER, HOW WILL YOUR WORLD BE
LIKE IF NUMBERS DO NOT EXIST?

Imagine a world without numbers.

Although there would be no math homework, there
would also be several bad things in such a world.
People would have a hard time counting how many
things there are, and how big something is. There
would be all sorts of important facts people
wouldn't know if it weren't for numbers.

Numbers play an important role in our lives. Almost all the things we do involve numbers and
Mathematics. Whether we like it or not, our life revolves in numbers since the day we were born.
There are numerous numbers directly or indirectly connected to our lives.

The following are some of the effects if numbers do not exist in our daily life:

1. Calling a member of a family or a friend using mobile phone would not be possible.
2. Calculating your daily budget for your food, transportation, and other expenses cannot be
made.
3. Cooking, or anything that involves the idea of proportion and percentage cannot be done.
4. Weighing fruits, vegetables, meat, chicken, and others in market will not be feasible.
5. Using elevators to go places or floors in the building will be difficult.
6. Looking at the price of discounted items in a shopping mall is impossible.
7. Looking for the number of people who liked your post on Facebook would be just a
dream.
8. Switching the channels of your favorite TV shows will be hard.
9. The time you spent on work or school cannot be computed.
10. Computing the interest you gained on your business will not be feasible.

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WHEN ARE WHOLE NUMBERS, FRACTIONS AN
DECIMALS APPROPRIATE TO BE USED?

WHOLE NUMBERS

Whole numbers are easy to remember. They're not fractions, they're not decimals, they're
simply whole numbers. The only thing that makes them different than natural numbers is that we
include the zero when we are referring to whole numbers. However, some mathematicians will
also include the zero in natural numbers and I'm not going to argue the point. I'll accept both if a
reasonable argument is presented. Whole numbers are 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on.

Everybody counts, add or subtract on a daily basis from the time we started counting toys
on the floor when we were 2 or 3 years old to when we count the cost of our groceries. When we
count, we use a number to represent a quantity. A number is an idea that we use to represent that
quantity.

We write the numbers down using symbols and these are called numerals.

A child counting cubes for instance may want to know how many cubes the following set
has:

The numeral that we use to represent the set above is 4.

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 When using numbers to count how many elements a set has, it is referred to as cardinal
numbers. For instance, 4 or four is a cardinal number. Besides counting how many elements a set
has, we use numbers to order objects such as:

Our team is second in group A

I am fifty-sixth in line
The first president of the United States is George Washington

Numbers used in this way are called ordinal numbers. For example, first, second, and
fifty-sixth are ordinal numbers. For cardinal numbers, we can use the symbol n(A) to represent
the number of elements in a finite set A. For example, the set made of cubes has 4 elements. We
can write n(cubes) = 4.

If A = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}, n(A) = 6

If B = {♠,♠,♠,♠,♠,♠,♠,♠,♠}, n(B) = 9

FRACTIONS

Fractions are important because they tell you what portion of a whole you need, have, or
want. Fractions are used in baking to tell how much of an ingredient to use. Fractions are used in
telling time; each minute is a fraction of the hour.

In our life, we often use fractions to represent parts of a whole. Do you realize that?
Okay, let’s look at examples of fractions that we use in our daily life:

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 1. If you walk down a street, you probably would get a third of the way before you stop at a
junction. After all, the walk down the street is a fraction: 1/3.

2. Another example is when you buy a birthday cake. Then, you have to divide the cake
among twelve of your friends. It means that, each one of your friends will get a fraction
of the cake: 1/12.

3. You use fractions every time you look at a clock: quarter past (1/4) and half past (1/2). In
fact, all time telling fractions of x/60.

4. The next example is when you want to make a drink, let say a glass of orange. You
probably will mix one part of orange cordial with 4 parts of plain water. Thus, the
fractions involve are: 1/5 of cordial and 4/5 of plain water.

5. Lastly, fractions also can be found in any recipes: half cup of milk, ¼ teaspoon of baking
powder and so forth.

6. I also found a Quranic verse which states about fractions.

“And unto you belongeth a half of that which your wives leave, if they have no child; but
if they have a child then unto you the fourth of that which they leave after any legacy thay may
have bequeathed, or debt (they may have contracted, hath been paid). And unto them belongeth
the fourth of that which ye have no child, but if ye have a child then the eighth of that which ye
leave, after any legacy ye may have bequeathed, or debt…”

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 Here are other uses of fractions in our everyday life without even knowing it:

A pizza is a great example of fractions! Each piece

represents a part of a whole. In the picture, the pizza is divided
into 8 pieces. If I have one piece, the fraction of pizza I am
eating is one-eighth. (1/8)

Fruit is another great example. Every time we cut an apple,

an orange, or any kind of fruit, we are taking a piece of the
whole. We can represent those pieces as fractions. The
picture below shows pictures of apples that can be used as
manipulatives. The one that says 1/4 is already shown. For
the other apples, the denominator tells us how many equal
pieces those apples will be cut into.

Money is another place fractions are used. For example, a

twenty pesos is one fifth of a 100 pesos (1/5). A fifty
pesos is one half, represented by 1/2. We could continue
by talking about bills and coins.

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 DECIMALS

Applications of Decimal In Daily Life. We use decimals every day while dealing with
money, weight, length etc. Decimal numbers are used in situations where more precision is
required than the whole numbers can provide.

We use decimals every day while dealing with money, weight, length etc. Decimal
numbers are used in situations where more precision is required than the whole numbers can
provide. For example, when we calculate our weight on the weighing machine, we do not always
find the weight equal to a whole number on the scale. In order to know our exact weight, we
must understand what the decimal value on the scale means.

It's obvious that every normal person has ten fingers. Since we have ten fingers, our
numbering is based on multiples of ten which is called decimal. Can you imagine how life would
be different if all human beings were born with eight fingers instead of ten? Maybe our
numbering system would be based on multiples of eight. A numbering system based upon eight
exists and is called octal. Octal numbering is used behind the scenes in computer systems.

But, of course, in everyday life we use decimal numbers. The idea of decimal numbering
comes to us from the ancient civilizations and we still use the numbering based on tens from the
Romans. The Roman numeral for ten is X and 20 is XX or 2 times 10. You still see Roman
numerals in dates on buildings and movies.

Our decimal numbering, using Arabic numerals instead of Roman numerals, also uses
multiples of 10, so 40 means 4 times 10. But you already know that! The other interesting part of
decimals is how decimals are used to represent fractions. Way back in 1616, a Scottish

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mathematician named John Napier suggested that decimal numbering could be used to show
fractions and he added the decimal point. Numbers to the left of the decimal point would stand
for whole numbers and numbers on the right side would indicate the fractional part.

HOW CAN THE KNNOWLEDGE OF REAL

NUMBERS HELP US DEALING WITH REAL-LIFE
PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS?

Real numbers are extremely useful in everyday life. That is probably one of the main
reasons we all learn how to count and add and subtract from a very young age. So what are
typical examples of using real numbers in a normal day?

 Real numbers help us to count and to measure out quantities of different items. So
for instance when you ask your partner how many slices of toast he or she wants for
breakfast, you are using real numbers when they reply with their answer.

 In your working life, regardless of what you do for a living, you will still have to use
numbers to a degree. Certainly those working in accounts and other financial related
jobs may use real numbers more often but those working in retail, buying, catering
and even publishing will have to use real numbers too. For example, in catering you
may have to ask the client how many sandwiches they need for the event or in

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 publishing you may need to tell an author how many pages you need their novel to
be.

 Even when relaxing at the end of the day in front of the television flicking from one
channel to the next you are using real numbers.

 When ringing your friend for a catch up you will also be inputting real numbers into
your phone to give them a call.

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