What’s Math Good for? The Story of Statistics

4 June 2007

Every once in a while, when national testing takes place you can hear hundreds and hundreds of students complaining about the inutility of math. And to be honest, unless you plan in being a math teacher or develop a career in the research field, math won’t be something you can’t live without. However, there is something about math that even the most firm advocate would question: the polysemantics of math statistics. Yes, you heard me correctly. For what is math truly good for, if not statistics and the recurrent data it provides?

Math statistics is wider than you can actually imagine. Now don’t expect me to talk about its branches and formulas: that won’t be your favorite subject, for sure. But to actually assert its relevance it might be useful to hint at a few domains where statistics actually makes the difference. So, let’s take bets for instance. You might be one of those persons who are looking forward to get to a horse race and place a bet. Well, big surprise, it all works on the basis of math statistics: you take into consideration all the horses, multiply the number with the winning probability and divide it to three. And there you have it, your successful number.

What is more, in order to use statistics for your own cause you will certainly need to know at least the basics in math. Don’t expect success and winning just to pop out of nowhere. No, no! It’s all the result of laborious and strenuous math calculus and binomial probability. So, keep in mind: math is not only the formula-filled science you have to take in high school, but, most importantly, it is the standard measurement for each and every domain in the world. Whether, statistics accounts for birth rates, minority groups, population, fees or life expectancy it will always be the fittest way to know how the world stands at a given time.

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