Mathematics in the Real World plus 10 Cool Facts about Mathematics

By Ainslie Anderson | Posted: Thursday May 16, 2019

Maths - sometimes boys will ask . when are we ever going to use this?

Mathematics is used in everyday life: financial transactions, builders use trigonometry, algebra is often used to solve problems,  engineers and economists use calculus, statistics is used widely in analysing data for production analysis ….. the list is endless.

To break down the barriers to show how maths can be used outside our classroom we have paired up with the PE department this year to collaborate our skill sets.  The students took data measured in PE and analysed it in maths. This way the boys have a real connection with the data; the students measure it over a number of standardised tests, (sprints, push-ups, jumps etc) and then we analyse and write an investigative report about the data looking for comparisons and improvements in rates over the 4 years.

We have noticed an improvement in our overall grades – this is due to the fact the students had ownership of the data – they understood what had been measured and they were interested in investigating the data to find relationships between Year 7 and 10.

10 Cool Facts about MATHS


2. “Forty” is the only number that is spelt with letters arranged in alphabetical order.



5. Every odd number has an “e” in it.

6. “Eleven plus two” is an anagram of “twelve plus one” which is pretty fitting, as the answer to both equations is 13.

7. Also, there are 13 letters in both “eleven plus two” and “twelve plus one”.

8. If you shuffle a deck of cards properly, it’s more than likely that the exact order of the cards you get has never been seen before in the whole history of the universe.

9. A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time. It means 1/100th of a second.

10. The word “mathematics” only appears in one Shakespearean play, “The Taming of the Shrew”.

Ainslie Anderson