LIFE WITHOUT MATHS

Ever picked up the guitar for the first time and tried playing a song? After being beaten up by your friends for their bleeding eardrums because of your cacophony, did you realize that you don’t even know what went wrong since you have no idea about the right way to play the guitar?

Well, that’s maths for a majority of people. Not me, though. It was one of my favorite subjects, and I’ve always scored well in it. But here’s a note for all of those people who are feeling jealous of me for being good at maths: BURN!

Along with millions of other people who haven’t been pitiful at maths, I feel that maths is indispensable for human evolution. What? But why? You’re saying it just because you’re good at it! True. Partly. maths is everywhere(in case you didn’t notice!) When you order food at KFC, the cashier tells you the total amount of money you have to pay to her/him. The cashier isn’t a seer, nor was your bill’s total amount told to the cashier by God. The billing machine calculated it, with maths. In fact, forget about the machine doing the math for you, consider the "pani puri wala" calculating how much you need to pay him. Ever occurred to you that it's maths and not magic? Let’s face it we’re all muggles. Magic doesn’t exist for us.

But that’s not all there is to maths. If you look closely, various companies showing you statistics to lure you into buying their products use maths. Their profits? Maths. Science is all about maths. All of the famous formulas you learn at school are combined works of science and maths. Architects use maths, and so do musicians. Here’s one you would’ve never guessed. Your maths teacher, (s)he uses maths!

Without maths, life would be, well, mathless. You wouldn’t have the concept of time. There would be no calendars either. No markets, no businesses, no money. There would be no internet as well. Oh, now I have your attention. Data flowing in and out in 0s and 1s would come down to just sitting and staring at the wall, which would be weak since the industrial way of building things wouldn’t exist. We would move back to forests and farms. All of the technological advancements you see around you are a product of maths and without maths, you’ll be left with nothing.

Do you like cakes and birthday gifts? Guess what, you’ll have none. Since there would be no numbers, there would be no dates. Nobody would remember when you were born and you’ll simply have no birthday. Sad life, eh? There would be no pizzas either since there would be no way of knowing the amount of ingredients to be used. Without maths, there is no electricity at your homes. We’ll become cavemen again.

Education would come to a standstill without maths. And so would economics of the nations. Without maths, there would be no scores so sports would have no meaning either. No Ballon d’Or for anyone. Banking sector would collapse and people from various industries would be rendered unemployed.

Maths is here for a good reason. A life without maths is not a satisfactory thought even for those who hate maths.

                                                                                                             Written by:

                                                                                                   Syed Ali Mudassar