What is Math?

Have you ever searched “What is math?” on Google? If you have you know there are approximately 445,000,000 results for this question. Many of the results state that math is about solving problems, numbers, quantity, logic, change, and so on. When I think of math, I think about problem solving, numbers and logic. When you think of math, you may think of something completely different; your answer depends on the experiences that you have had with it.

What does it means to do mathematics? Math doesn’t have to be about sitting down and trying to solve a problem on paper (but it can be). To do math, you could be counting your change when you buy your Dairy Queen, so that you don’t have to break a twenty. Or you could be measuring the length of the new table you want to buy, to see if it’s going to fit in your dining room. You could even be reading a weather graph of the temperature for the next week, to see if it’s really necessary to buy that new coat. Math isn’t always difficult, in fact most of the time it’s actually pretty simple.

What is going on if you are thinking mathematically? According to Doctor Edwin, “thinking mathematically is the ability to lift the abstract structure of a situation away from the specifics and answer it based on that alone.” He gives the example that he doesn’t have to sit down to figure out that two people times three meals a day, is six. Personally, I think that thinking mathematically means that you are taking things that you have previously learned and are using them subconsciously in every day life.