Math in Life Project – Examples For the preparation of your Math in Life project, please, find in any part of the textbook some information about the applications of math. methods and models for solving any professional or every-day-life problems. Then shortly outline this information in your project. Chapter 1: Logic Computers are all about logic. Since computers deal strictly with binary math, either a bit is “on” or it is “off”. deal with the use of negation, and, or and exclusive or operators. These are the heart of conditional statements in programming language. The “Boolean Search” described on page 12 describes how Boolean searches are performed on web pages, by matching phrases in the search string. Chapter 2: Algorithms This chapter is rich in fine examples. Algorithms are the building blocks of computer programs. The linear search on and binary search algorithm on page 124 are good examples of how these are used. Searches are very common in computer programs. Sorting algorithms are discussed on pp 125-126, which are also very common in computer programs as well. One algorithm which is near to my heart is the RSA Public Key algorithm discussed on page 192. This algorithm is the heart of most SSL encrypted web sites. Chapter 3: Mathematical Reasoning Recursion is discussed in section 3.5 (Algorithm 5, Binary search algorithm). Recursive algorithms are very common in computer applications, especially searches and sorts. Merging is also discussed in chapter 3 (section 3.5, p 279). Merges are very common especially with word processing applications. Chapter 4: Counting I like the examples on page 308-309 of combinations. Example 17 (p 309) demonstrates the number of combinations for a specific bit string, while example 18 (p 309) shows a great example of the possible combinations of matchups in a 5 game series. Very relevant since we are in the middle of the NHL playoffs. Chapter 8: Graphs Graphs are used to illustrate patterns and flows, especially in computer networks. Figure 10 on page 551 shows a star, ring and hybrid graph for a computer network – these types of topologies are also used to help design a “chain of trust” for certificate authorities and different authentication systems that I work with. Chapter 9: Trees Trees are widely used in computers. A typical Microsoft Active Directory (AD) overall structure is usually referred to as a “forest” with many “trees” that represent different organizations within the forest. These trees also have branches which are organizational units within the organization. Look to figure 5 on 635 for a typical example of this. A tree can be also used in a certificate authority hierarchy. Such a hierarchy can be typically illustrated in Figure 7, diagram T3. Chapter 11: Modeling Computation Modeling Computation deals in part with recognition and grammar. In compilers this is important because the compiler has to recognize the line of code and then be able to translate that into objectcode that the computer understands. I think definition 1 (p 741) covers this nicely. A computer language consists of a vocabulary (e.g. in Java we have int, char, System.out.println, etc which are all part of the vocabulary). The diagram on p 752 which shows a diagram of a vending machine is a good example of a finite state machine . So is there math in real life? Absolutely.