Category: Math at Work Monday

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Math at Work Monday

Math at Work Monday: Robert the personal trainer

What does it mean to be an exercise physiologist?

I do exercise testing and personal training at a large, new, state-of-the-art fitness center. The two main tests I conduct are a resting metabolic-rate test, which tells you how many calories your body typically burns at rest (then you can, hopefully, figure out how many you should consume!); and cardiovascular tests, which reveal how cardiovascularly fit you are. Using those results, you can work at the right heart-rate zone to burn fat. I also do strength and flexibility assessments.

And clearly, this requires some mathematical calculations.

I do a little math everyday. Sometimes I’m converting meters to feet or miles. I work a lot with percentages, particularly heart rate percents. Often, I put some raw data into a computer program to get those percentages. Other times it is on the fly with a calculator, always with a calculator. I work with percentages of heart rates for training goals or with disease management cases. I also work in terms of percentages of fat, to weight, and to muscle. Once in a while a computer program doesn’t work and I have to do some algebraic equations by hand, old school. I don’t remember the formulas so I have to look them up.

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

Exercise science is a science, and it should be precise. I measure fitness levels (body composition, strength, flexibility and cardiovascular), prescribe exercise, and try to help clients achieve a certain percent increase in one thing, or a certain percent drop in another, and then measure again. If I get these things wrong, clients are less likely to see results, and in my job, I need to produce results.

How comfortable with math do you feel?

The math I do now I feel comfortable with. I know the basics well. When you throw out numbers to people, when you know numbers, people tend to listen more. When I’m presenting to my department head I always double-check my math.

What kind of math did you take in high school?

I was awful in Algebra. I had to work three times harder than everyone else just to get by. After the basics, math made little sense until I got to study stats in grad school. I found some more purpose in it.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do this math?

Most of the math that I use at work or shopping at Costco I learned in school.

Want to know more about the math involved in fitness and nutrition? Check out my book Math for Grownups, which will be out on July 18!  And if you know of anyone who uses math in surprising ways in their work, please let me know.

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Math at Work Monday

Math at Work Monday: Shana the jewelry designer

Art and math are diametrically opposite, right?  Wrong.

Blossom, layering of enamel over silver. Photo credit: Hap Sakwa.

Shana Kroiz is a Baltimore-based, acclaimed jewelry designer and artist, whose work has been shown in the some of the country’s most esteemed galleries and museums, including The Smithsonian and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.  She’s kind of a big deal–and she does math!

When do you use basic math in your job?

Most days I contend with a variety of math problems, whether I’m measuring a piece or resizing a ring. I use wax to cast my designs, and so I have to convert the weight of wax into the the specific weight of the metal I am using. I also construct three-dimensional forms out of sheet metal, which requires some geometry. I have to know the sizes and weights of my pieces, so that they are not too heavy to be worn. When scoring and bending metal, I have to figure out the angle of my score lines in order to get the correct angle out of the sheet I am bending. Then there’s the business side of things: calculating the time it takes to make a piece with the cost of materials and the addition of any profit I need to make. Prices also have to be converted into a retail and wholesale values.

Do you use any tools to help with this math?

Yes, I use calculators, calipers, dividers, scales and, of course, computers. They all help with precision and time management.

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

Without math, it is almost impossible to do precision work. I work with a lot of potentially dangerous chemicals, and the math involved keeps me safe.  Plus, if I mix the chemicals incorrectly, the result won’t be what I need.  Being precise with my math means that I can avoid having to do things over again.

How comfortable with math do you feel?

I do most of the same sorts of problems over and over, so I feel comfortable in the studio, and can teach to my students. But there are times when I wish I had a deeper or broader understanding of how to use math. Sometimes I think I take too long to find the answers to calculations.  If I understood how to use a different formula I might get to the answer faster.

Did you have to learn new skills in order to do this math?

Yes, but I had to work it out on my own. When I had a tangible need, I figure things out.

What kind of math did you take in high school?

I went through algebra and some geometry. And I didn’t feel like I was good at it at all! I could follow a problem if I had a model, but I did not have a good enough conceptual understanding of math to work out the formulas on my own. So I would say I was average at best, but I think if it had been taught in a way that I could understand I would have been much better.  I do think if math was taught with more useful applications, students would have an easier time learning, understanding and being engaged in math as a useful tool for life.

Each Monday, I feature someone who uses everyday math in their jobs.  If you would like to be featured (or if you know someone who you think should be featured), let me know at llaing-at-comcast-dot-net.  You can also catch up on previous Math at Work Mondays.

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Math at Work Monday

Math at Work Memorial Day: Wendy the television line producer

What is a television line producer, and how long have you been doing this job?

Production companies hire me after they’ve received the “green light” to develop and produce a new television series. The first thing I do is read something called the bible, a document that explains the concept, visual look and tone of the show. My job is to create a production budget based on the amount of money the executive producer has for the entire project. For example, if he or she gives me $6 million to produce 26 episodes, I need to allocate every cent within several dozen categories over the length of the production. I also create the pre-production, shooting and post-production schedules, assist with casting, hire the technical crews and then oversee the whole project from beginning to end.  I’ve been doing this work for 23 years.

When do you use basic math in your job?

I have to break everything down in the budget and make sure we only spend what we have! So for example, I have to figure out how many days we need a wardrobe assistant, how much it will cost, and make sure we have some wiggle room for overtime, extra prep days, etc. Sometimes, if I’m working on a smaller budget show, I’m the one who calculates the actors’ and technicians’ time sheets, so lots of adding, multiplication, etc.

Every week or so, I have to do cash flow reports; how much I estimated to spend, the actual costs, and estimated future costs. It all has to balance out, so if we do lots of overtime one week, I need to figure out what needs to be cut over the coming weeks to make up for that shortfall.

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

Oh yes!! Time sheets are now calculated on the computer, but I still check everything with a calculator, as I’ve fallen victim to incorrect formats. Nothing worse than a camera operator coming up to you saying his paycheck is wrong!! Cash flows and budgets are either done on Excel or through special software, often MovieMagic, which has programs for film and television scheduling and budgeting.

🙂

I have to admit I also still count on my fingers sometimes

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

It forces me to focus on what is perhaps the most important part of any creative project: the bottom line. Television is lots of fun, but it’s a business, and the executives and broadcasters expect me to deliver a project on budget. Time is money when you’re on-set, so even 15 minutes of overtime can sink you, if you have dozens of cast and crew to pay. Math makes me more organized!

How comfortable with math do you feel?

Today, I’m very comfortable with math, but since I have a tendency to do everything quickly, my challenge is always to slow down and get it right.*

What kind of math did you take in high school?

I hated math all through school, and always excelled at writing, and other creative subjects. I had one fabulous math teacher in tenth grade who finally made math fun. Good thing I was in his class, because I’d always figured I’d never need math to pursue my career goals, but was amazed years later to discover how much math I needed when I started working in television production. I was a script supervisor whose duties included timing segments with a stop-watch, adding things up and making sure we wouldn’t go into editing with too many long scenes. I was terrified of making math errors, and realized quickly to slow down, relax and always double-check my work.

Wendy Helfenbaum is a writer and television producer in Montreal, Canada. Visit her at http://www.taketwoproductions.ca.

*This is perhaps the best advice I can offer anyone who is struggling with math.  Only your fifth-grade teacher and the Mathletes coach care how quickly you can do calculations.

Last week’s Math at Work feature was with my sister, Melissa, who is a speech therapist.

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Math at Work Monday

Math at Work Monday: Melissa the Speech Therapist

When you were in middle and high school, did you think you’d never need to use the math you were learning?  Like most grownups, you probably found out that, yes, you did need some of it — and some of it you’ll never do again.

Each Monday, I’ll introduce you to someone who uses math on the job.  We’re going to skip over the engineers, physicists and statisticians and stick to folks who use regular, everyday math.  First up, my sister, Melissa, a speech therapist.

So, what kind of speech therapist are you, and how long have you been doing this job?

Lots of people think of speech therapists in the school setting, working with kids.  But I work with adults, who are critically ill or recovering from an injury or illness in rehab.  I’ve been doing this for 19 years. Basically, I provide care in these areas:

  • Speech and communication: patients who have declined neurologically or physically and cannot talk, have slurred speech, or any difficulty communicating.
  • Swallowing: patients who have swallowing impairments, usually from neurological deficits, or physical decline in some way.
  • Cognitive: patients whose thinking skills have declined, including memory, problem solving, attention, reasoning.
  • Other specialty areas: patients with tracheotomies, laryngectomies, concussions.

All of my patients are adults, and most of them have had some sort of illness or injury.

When do you use math in your job?

Rehab is very goal oriented.  I meet with patients on a regular basis and keep data on those goals — how many questions the patient answered correctly or the number of times a he performed a certain task properly. At the end of the day, I tabulate that data. And then at the end of the week, I average the data for the week.

I also use math in some of my tasks with the patients.
Functional math is a form of reasoning, and so I will provide a patient
with math tasks to “rehab” his or her reasoning skills.

These calculations help me determine if the patient has met that goal, and if so, I create a new goal.

I also use math in some of my tasks with the patients. Functional math is a form of reasoning, and so I will provide a patient with math tasks to “rehab” his or her reasoning skills.

What kind of math is important for your job?

Percents!  If the patient got 8 out of 10 correct on a certain task, I put in the note that she was 80% successful. (But sometimes the numbers aren’t great for mental math: 29 out of 44 correct, for example.)

Most rehab and acute care settings use a very specific form of measuring assistance, called Functional Independent Measures, or FIMS.

  • Independent: 100%
  • Modified Indpendent: 100% with extra time
  • Supervision: 90% or above
  • Minimum Assist: 75-90%
  • Moderate Assist: 50-75%
  • Maximum Assist: 25-50%
  • Dependent: less than 25%

So, since I measure FIMS weekly, I am always creating percentages in my head (and on paper) of how a patient is performing on that certain task.

How does math help you do your job?

It allows me to be very accurate in data collection. Of course, many patients’ lengths of stay is dependent on whether or not there is proven progress, and the best way to prove it is to show it in black-and-white. Patients and their families would rather see “80% accuracy” as opposed to “required min assist.” Percents are more accurate and detailed.

I also firmly believe that having patients do math themselves helps them building their reasoning skills.  I think I am doing my job better by making them do math! I will even have my patients average their data for the week.  This helps them use reasoning skills as well as understand their goals and how they are progressing.

How comfortable with math do you feel?

I feel comfortable with simple math, especially if I can write it out, use pen and paper, etc. I get bogged down with more complex actions and definitions, but I don’t have to use these in my job.

Did you have to learn to use new skills?

No, I use basic elementary and middle school math. However, I do feel like it took me years in my job to realize that I could involve the patient to help me! It’s a great way to help the patient therapeutically. I think I forget to make math functional.

Thank you, Melissa for being the first person featured in Math at Work Monday! If you have questions for Melissa, feel free to ask them in the comments section.  And if you know of someone who uses regular math in their jobs — duh, of course you do! — and you would like to see that person featured here, drop me a line and let me know!