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Happy Math 2.0 day. Let's get started. I don't know if you can tell by the sound of my voice or just the mere giddiness that may come across, but I love math. Math is like one of those things that I really enjoy.
And now I'm not going to say that I've always been this way. However, when in my earlier years, I didn't dislike math. I just didn't feel one way or the other about it. It was fine with me.
I did well. I understood it. But it wasn't until later on that I began to love math. And my goal was to try to get other people to love math too.
And hence, I became a teacher. Now, I'm not going to say that this has been an easy task because some people, unfortunately, my personal opinion as a math educator is that if you have a bad math teacher early on, then it's going to cause you to feel some type of way about math. You're going to have barriers and blockages and whatnot because of the trauma that you experienced with math early on. I know I kind of almost got into that realm by way of my mom.
No, mom. I'm not trying to throw you under the bus or anything. However, when I was growing up, probably around third grade, my mother kept just forcing in my head that when she was in school, her math teacher, or her teacher period, because I think her teacher taught her math and everything else, that they would have to go up in front of the class and recite their multiplication facts. And if they did not do it right or if they got to a point and stopped, then she would get a ruler and beat the rest of it into them.
Talk about sitting in my anxiety, bit of roof. OMG, thanks mom. So now as a third grader, I was so worried that every day I was going to school, my teacher was going to shut regular class down and be like, all right, enough of this nonsense. Today we're going to recite our time stables.
Well, that day never came. I never had to recite my time stables in front of a classroom full of people. Not once, ever. But I was scared that that day would come and I would get to a point and I would stop.
And then I would get it jammed into my knuckles the rest of the time stables. Now I look back at that and I laugh and I think, wow, but as a kid, you hear something like that, you internalize it, and then, oh my gosh, to get away from that thing is going to be a task. So it's not your fault if you don't like math. It's not your fault if you never understood math.
It's probably just that you did not have a great teacher like myself to guide you through the process. So I said all of that and I still really haven't told you anything about math 2.0 day. So here's the skinny. It's celebrated every July 8th and it's a holiday that commemorates the importance of the combination of math and technology.
Also the accomplishments that have made through the combination of those two fields and how the world can benefit in the coming years from this awesome little combo deal we got going on. Basically, if you're honest with yourself and you sit and you think about it, you will know and understand that without math, it would be impossible for us to be provided with the different travel and entertainment mediums that we have today, as well as the fact that without this math technology combination, there are so many jobs and tasks that we do every single day that we would not be able to accomplish. As a matter of fact, this podcast would not be able to be accomplished without that combination of math and technology together. So long story short, this is why you should love math.
This is why you should appreciate math and technology. Don't run from it. Don't hide from it. Open your arms to it.
Welcome it like an old friend. Numbers are your friends. I hope you know that, right? We could technically sit here and talk about all of the many discoveries and contributions that have been made by people using math over the centuries.
We could talk about quantum mechanics, electromagnetism, Pythagorean theorem, talking about proofs and whatnot. We could do that. But honestly, I think those are the things that make people give math a stiff arm and be like, no thanks. I'll have none of that.
Not today. And it's because a lot of times the concepts by themselves feel just overwhelmingly just complicated. So therefore, to try to wrap your mind around the fact that I'm going to do some calculations to figure this stuff out is mind-boggling and mind-blowing. I get it.
I understand it. I can recall several occasions where students kind of just shut down and you're in an algebra class and you're introducing multiple variables into an equation. And they're just like, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. First off, the fact that you put one letter in an equation and now you're doing two and now you just got more than two and that's just doing too much.
You know, like, I'm going to need you to fall back, Ms. Langham. I'm going to need you to fall back. And I'm like, you know, it's different.
And I understand that because people doing math want to do math with numbers and numbers only. However, the thing with math is sometimes you have to be a detective. Sometimes you don't have all the pieces to the puzzle and you need to put the pieces together. So you take the data points that you know and then you use those variables, those unknowns to just hold the spot.
They're just spot holders. That's all. And then from there, you can put the pieces of the puzzle together and figure out so many amazing things. So many.
You know? So like I said, we could talk about those complicated topics or maybe about Alan Turing and the machine that he created to break the German military codes back in World War II. And that's all fine and dandy. But let me ask you this.
Did you know that there's a formula to forecast the weather? Yeah, it was created by an American mathematician and meteorologist. How crazy is that? So when you think about the stuff that's trending right now, like the storm Elsa that's coming up the coast, you're just like, oh my gosh, math helped to track this storm's trajectory.
Every minute that goes by, the variables change and can cause this storm to do something completely different. And because of math, we can project that. We can look forward and say, okay, it might do these various different things. Now granted, it can't tell you exactly what this storm is going to do, but it can give you a good idea of where it's going to go, what it's going to do.
And therefore, we can let people know that are in those various paths. Hey, you might want to evacuate. You might want to go do something else. But let's go to something that maybe more people are interested in.
The movies. This movie coming out tonight, Black Widow. Without the combination of math and technology, we wouldn't have Black Widow. We wouldn't have the Avengers.
We wouldn't have any of this stuff. I mean, because honestly, I think back to the movie Gemini Man. It was too well Smith's. Now that right there was amazing by itself because you know, Will has done all these movies where it's just been him.
And you're just like, oh, okay, so nobody else is in this movie. All right, I got you, Will. But now it's too open in there and he's fighting himself. Math, technology.
It couldn't happen without it. Like you would literally have to get a Will Smith look alike to sit there and fight the real Will Smith. That's just, yeah, no, that's not how it works. We use math to make these things happen.
Now you don't have to worry about doing the calculations. How about that? But my thing is just appreciate the math. Appreciate the numbers.
Appreciate the fact that there are some people out there that are better at it. Then maybe you are. And that's okay. But don't run around talking about how math is yuck and math.
All that stuff. Just stop that. Because as a matter of fact, I was reading something and it was basically giving you ideas on the things that you can do to support this day, Math 2.0 day. And it was saying things like due to the high level of difficulty, kids start disliking math.
And since math is tough to master, it often ends up getting on people's nerves. Well, if you have those types of negative attitudes about math, then yes, it is going to be difficult. Yes, it is going to get on your nerves. If you approach it with an open mind, this goes back to my idea of making sure that you have the right instructor for it, the right person to teach you about it, then it makes a world of difference.
Because if you can understand the logic behind numbers starting from just your regular old counting numbers, then it's going to take you to these other places. If you understand the purpose behind the different mathematical calculations and don't just memorize a process so that you can pass a test, it's going to make a world of difference. So I say all of this to say that with computers and coding and math and all that good stuff that we have going on out there, we as a people have to stop looking at math as the enemy because math is numbers. Money revolves around numbers because if you want a little bit of it, then you got a small amount of numbers here.
If you want a lot of it, then you got a whole lot more to count. So if you're going to dislike numbers and math, then just go ahead and stop disliking everything that numbers and math are related to. And you'll find that you've got a very few things in life to actually like. Now this is no way of threat because I feel like I'm threatening you right now.
It's not a threat. It's just the truth though. Hear me when I say this. Numbers are your friends.
There's no reason to be afraid of them. There's no need to feel some type of way about them. If you take your time, read through whatever it is that you're doing, whether it's a word problem or a number sentence. Think about it logically.
Before you make that next step, ask yourself, what makes sense? What should I do next? And you will be amazed at how far and how much you'll get out of it. You'll understand.
You'll know. And you'll be able to apply to other situations rather than just having them arise something and have no earthly idea why you did what you did other than because the teacher told me so. All right. So I'm going to step on down off of myself box right now.
That was today's episode. Today's math 2.0 day. My recommendation for you is to do something today in honor of mathematics, in honor of your favorite mathematician, maybe it was a math teacher that you have reached out to them on social media and say, hey, let them know how you felt about math back then. But then let them know now that you have a better appreciation for that is if you actually do and if not, strike up a conversation with them about it.
And maybe you can then help somebody else after you to foster a better appreciation for math and numbers than maybe what you had. And you know, you can do something as simple as, like I mentioned before, they'll check out Black Widow. Can you tell what I'm going to do later on? I'm going to be checking out Black Widow.
And I'm going to use that as part of my way to celebrate now 2.0 day. The other thing I'm going to do is I'm going to kind of take it back to the old school and I'm going to pull out the abacus and get my daughter and we're going to do some multiplication backs on there. And I'm going to let her know, hey, guess what? Your teacher probably isn't going to make you recite these things in front of the class.
Just saying. All right, guys, have a great weekend. Do something mathematical every single day. And I'll see you back here again on Tuesday.