Question interview mathematics

1. What do you know about mathematics?

Mathematics is a subject that you will need everywhere and for the rest of your life.
Personally, I am very glad that I never had a problem with it. I quite liked it when I was
in secondary school. It is a subject you only learn by doing it, practice practice practice…

2. Do you ever thinks about how mathematics can affect your daily life?
I often feel confronted with mathematical issues in daily life. Maths is everywhere
(calculations in recipes, planning the new interior of your house, doing grocery
shopping, process data at work…)
I must say that some parts of maths I never use anymore (equations and things)

3. How do you think mathematics affects your daily life?

See question 3

4. Do you know anything from mathematics that affects your daily life?
See question 3

5. Is there a difference between mathematics nowadays and in the early days?

I think mathematics is about the only subject that hasn’t changed a lot over the years.
Contexts might be different, yes, but content stays the same.

6. What do you think mathematics is all about?

Wikipedia says: Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity (numbers),
structure, space and change

7. At how many things do you think mathematics has an influence on?

Eh..10.000 things…(silly question)
Like I said: In EVERY part of your life you can find maths. Of course, some careers
require more, and some require less mathematical skills.

8. Do you think mathematics also has an influence on nature?

Yes, A lot of things in nature are miraculously mathematical! Think about symmetry in
nature. Lots of plants and animals are perfectly symmetric (radially or bilaterally) but
also inanimate things like for instance snowflakes and crystals.
 You can also find lots of “perfectly shaped” things in nature: the sun, waves, spider
web, flowers, honeycombs..
Have you ever heard of Fibonacci numbers? Another interesting fact is that some plants
and animals grow by this ratio to keep their proporsional shape. You should definetely
look for more information on the internet!

9. Why do you think mathematics is also in nature?

I think mathematic is not just a subject in secondary school, it is not something that people
made up, it is something that just exists. (like chemisty teaches you that protons, atoms and
things exist and form matarials). Mathematics already existed in nature before people
tried to make sense of it. People tried to organise all the maths in nature (by naming
shapes and discovering proportions etc).