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Math at Work Monday: What I’ve learned

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted a new Math at Work Monday interview. But this feature remains one of the most popular here at Math for Grownups. Perhaps that’s because teachers and parents like to prove to their kids, “See, you will use this stuff one day!” And I imagine that others stumble upon it while looking for career advice. At any rate, it’s been an eye-opening experience for me, too. And here are a few lessons learned.

People don’t know they’re doing math

I’ve intentionally  focused on careers that are not traditionally STEM related — from a textile designerto an FBI profiler to a children’s book author. And almost everyone says the same thing: “I don’t use much math in my work.” Then they follow up with a revelation – they do more math than they think!

People do the math they want to do

This makes a lot of sense. Why go into a career that requires skills you don’t have? Those folks who really dislike calculus are most likely not going to become physicists. Folks who hate statistics avoid careers in research. And people who have a disdain for geometry aren’t likely to become carpenters or architects. At the same time, when someone feels drawn to a career, they’re willing to whatever it takes to be successful. That often includes a little bit of math.

People do a lot of mental math

While most folks I interview say that they check their work with a calculator or good old back-of-the-envelope calculations, a fair amount of math is being done in their heads. This may be as simple as using fractions to mix the perfect hair color to deconstructing formulas so that the math can be done in the field, say on a fish hatchery.

People also depend on technology

When it comes to money, especially, or critical situations, like healthcare, a computer, spreadsheet or calculator is often a necessary tool. But often these require a clear understanding of the math going on. It’s not enough to give someone some software. These folks must know how the math works in order to use their technological tools.

People often don’t have a good relationship with math

This is kind of sad to me, but it’s been very true: I rarely meet someone in a non-STEM field who says that they really understood math in school and now feel really confident in their skills. Yet, all of the folks I interview for Math at Work Monday do use math. That says to me that their issues with math are often in their head – and probably not really their fault. The reality is that our educational system and other adults often fail us in this regard. It’s not about making math fun. It’s about making math useful.

I’d like to keep Math at Work Monday going, but I need your help. Do you know someone who would be interested in being interviewed? Think of basic fields: home improvement, medicine, the arts, law, public service and more. Does your partner use math in his work? What about your next door neighbor or your sister? The answer is yes, and I’d like to interview them. Shoot me a line at llaing [at] comcast [dot] net, and I’ll reach out to them.

What have you learned from the Math at Work series? Have you been surprised by anything? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

P.S. I wanted to explain why I was so silent last week. Because of the horrific events in the U.S., I felt it would be trite to post about Math Awareness. Clearly our national attention was needed elsewhere, and so aside from a Boston-related post, I made the decision not to post. My thoughts continue to be with everyone in Boston and West, Texas.

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Math at Work Monday: Joe the Platform Consultant

In the IT field, there are many machines and programs that are really confusing and difficult to understand. Not only do we have to trust and depend on these machines, but also the people who service them. Joe Thompson is one of the good guys. He provides assistance to the users and companies when they need it most. From consulting to maintenance, Joe and his colleagues are there for us when our technology isn’t working quite right. (Joe is also one of my former geometry students. It’s been great to reconnect with him and see how accomplished he is now!)

Can you explain what you do for a living?

Red Hat’s consultants help customers get our products working when they have specific needs that go beyond the usual tech support.  We are essentially advanced computer system administrators on whatever our customers need us to be to get Red Hat’s products to work for them.  Common consulting gigs are setting up Red Hat Satellite to manage the customer’s servers, or doing performance tuning to make things run faster or a “health check” to verify things are running as efficiently as possible.

We just put out a marketing video about our consulting for public-sector clients, actually:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMzANG3Yhlk(We do more than just public sector and cloud, of course.)

When do you use basic math in your job?

The most common is when tuning a system to perform well, or configuring various things.  Unit conversions and base conversions are especially important.

IT has a long-running math issue actually: does “kilo” mean “1000” (a round number in base 10), or “1024” (a round number, 10000000000, in base 2)?  There are various ways people try to indicate which is intended, like using a capital K vs. a lowercase k, or using KiB vs. KB.  This matters in a lot of cases because when you get up into large data sizes, the difference between round numbers in base 10 and base 2 gets pretty big.  A 1-TB hard drive (a typical size today, maybe even a little small) is a trillion bytes — 1000 to the fourth power, not 1024 to the fourth power.  The difference is about 10% of the actual size of the drive, so knowing which base you’re dealing with is important.

Then there are units that have to be converted.  A common adjustment for better performance is tweaking how much data is held in memory at a time to be transmitted over the network, which is done by measuring the delay between two systems that have to communicate.  Then you multiply the delay (so many milliseconds) by the transmission speed (so many megabits or gigabits per second) and that gives the buffer size, which you have to set in bytes (1 byte = 8 bits) or sometimes other specified units.Sometimes software writers like to make you do math so they can write their code easier.  If a program has options that can either be on or off, sometimes a programmer will use a “bitfield” — a string of binary digits that represent all the options in a single number, which is often set in base 10.  So if you have a six-digit bitfield and want to turn off everything but options 1 and 6, you would use the number 33: 33 = 100001 in binary.

Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math? Why or why not?

I’ve always done a lot of arithmetic in my head and I can at least estimate a lot of the conversions without resorting to a calculator.  I’ll break out the calculator if the math is long and tedious though, like averaging a long column of numbers, or if I need a precise answer quickly on something like how many bytes are in 1.25 base-10 gigabits — I can do the billion divided by 8 and come out with 125 million bytes per base-10 gigabit, and then multiplying by 1.25 I know I’m going to be in the neighborhood of 150 million bytes, but I need the calculator to quickly get the exact answer of 156250000 bytes.  If I’m on a conference call about that kind of thing I’ll use the calculator more than otherwise.Google introduced a new feature a couple of years ago that will do basic math and unit conversions for you, so if I’m deep into things or just feeling lazy I can also just pull up a web browser and type “1.25 gigabits in bytes” in the search bar, and Google does it all for me.  But recently I noticed I was reaching for the calculator more, and arithmetic in my head was getting harder, so I’ve been making a conscious effort to do more head-math lately.

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

Without math, I couldn’t do my job at all 🙂 Even so little a thing as figuring out how long a file will take to transfer takes a good head for numbers.  As soon as you dig under the surface of the operating system, it’s math everywhere.

How comfortable with math do you feel? Does this math feel different to you ?

I’m pretty comfortable with math.  A lot of my off-time hobbies touch on computers too so it’s a lot of the same math as work even when I’m not working.

What kind of math did you take in high school? Did you like it/feel like you were good at it?

I took the standard track for an Advanced Studies diploma from grades 8-11 (Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Advanced Math), plus AP Calculus my senior year, and always did well. I didn’t expect to like Geometry going in because it’s not one-right-answer like a lot of math, but I ended up enjoying the logical rigor of proofs.  (Though I do recall giving my Geometry teacher fits on occasion when my proofs took a non-standard tack…)

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job? Or was it something that you could pickup using the skills you learned in school?

Most of it was learned in school, although base conversion isn’t something we spent a lot of time on.  I got good at it through long, frequent practice as you might guess…

Do you have a question for Joe? Send me your question and I will forward it to him.

Photo Credit: Dan Hamp via Compfight cc

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Math at Work Monday: Robert the veterinarian

With a blind, deaf, 18-year old toy poodle who has dementia (canine cognitive disorder), I’ve gotten to know our friendly neighborhood veterinarian very, very well. Dr. Robert Z. Berry, DVM at The Village Vet has helped us manage some strange symptoms and supported us in the last year since Roxie was diagnosed with dementia. Just like people doctors, vets must have excellent bedside manner, and Dr. Berry has it in spades.

I also noticed that he does quite a bit of math in his work. Roxie has been on a variety of medication, as we’ve looked for the right combination to keep her happy and healthy. And she’s only 6 pounds. That means converting measurements like crazy. At a recent visit, I finally got the idea to ask Dr. Berry to answer my Math at Work Monday questions. If your kid aspires to be a vet, read on!

Can you explain what you do for a living? 

I examine sick and healthy animals, provide preventative care such as vaccinations or parasite (intestinal and blood born worms) screening and offer early disease detection, blood tests or imaging (xrays and ultrasound). In the case of sick animals, we can hospitalize and provide medical care or medical surgical care to help return them to normal health. Additionally we provide routine surgical and dental services such as spaying , neutering, tumor removal, dental cleaning and extractions.

When do you use basic math in your job?

Everyday, from basic math skills to algebra. Here’s an example : An animal weighs 22 pounds and needs medication which is dosed at a rate of 20 mg/kg and given three times a day. The animal’s weight is measured in pounds, so the first step is to convert to kilograms. Then I need to multiply the weight in kilograms by 20 mg/kg. Now we have a milligram dose of 200 mg. But things can get even more complex. Suppose the drug is supplied in 400 mg/ml strength? I use division or an algebraic formula to arrive at a milliliter (or cc, cubic centimeter) dose of 0.5 ml.

Do you use any technology (like calculators or computers) to help with this math?  

I really prefer not to use a calculator because I think it can make my brain become lazy. It is remarkable how much agility you lose (even basic math skills) when you don’t use basic math skills on a daily basis. I calculate in my head but verify with the calculator.

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

It’s absolutely necessary with any sort of drug therapy.

How comfortable with math do you feel?

I feel very comfortable with math and have all of my life. Vets must be mentally sharp and learn to rely on their most important assets — their brains! I took calculus in high school, and I felt very confident in the class. School prepared me very adequately for the nuts-and-bolts part of my job. I was fortunate to have good teachers and also to have been raised in the time period before calculators were allowed in school. A good primary education prepares one for the rest of his or her life.

So there you have it, a vet who is both compassionate and math-savvy — a great combination! Were you surprised by the math that Dr. Berry uses in his practice? Share your response in the comments section.

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Math at Work Monday: Joelle the assistant camp director

Whether a day or sleep-away, camp is a perineal part of summer for many families. So today, I introduce you to Joelle Kelenson, Director of School Age Programming for the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. She uses math, and she doesn’t even run a math camp!

Can you explain what you do for a living?

During the school year I am in charge of managing the before and after school program at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. The program encompasses 150 children and 30 part-time teenage and college staff. I am responsible for ensuring that our program is up to the health and safety standards of our license, that the children get a healthy snack, training the staff to ensure the well being of all children, that all supplies are purchased, and that all information is communicated with parents. During the summer I switch hats and become the assistant camp director. I develop programming and curriculum for our summer camp, supervise the units heads and specialists and ensure that camp is running smoothly.

When do you use basic math in your job?

I use very basic math in my job like counting how many children are in a room to ensure proper ratios. I also use math to add up staff hours for payroll. In addition I manage a budget of $160,000 so I need to use math to make sure I’m on top it and know where I’m at spending wise.

Do you use any technology to help with this math?

I use a calculator to do my payroll and a formulated Excel spreadsheet to help me manage my budget. I’m also not very good at math so I often use my fingers to count. 🙂

How do you think math helps you do your job better?

If I didn’t use math in my job, my program wouldn’t be up par, we would run a defict and our staff would probably get paid more than they actually worked. Math helps me stay on top of things and manage things.

How comfortable with math do you feel?

Over time I’ve gotten better and more comfortable using math. Most of my math is basic, it was the math of managing the budget that at first made me nervous, but now I’m getting better with it.

What kind of math did you take in high school?

I grew up in Montreal and took advanced math called 436 and 536 in my junior and senior year.  I was never good at math. It didn’t come naturally to me and I hated it, but I worked hard and did well in the classes — except that midway through my senior year, I gave up and barely passed my senior math class. As a result I was forced to drop out of the sciences like physics and chemistry and take more social science classes.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do the math you use in your job?

I did not need to learn anything new but rather refresh myself on the basics. I did however learn the benefits the Excel formulas and how they are helpful!

Thanks, Joelle, for being our Math at Work Monday interview today. If you have questions for Joelle, ask them in the comments section. I’ll make sure she sees them and has a chance to respond.

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