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VAMatt said:
SvennoJ said:

 Atm it's all that newfangled school math that's stumping us. Math was very different when we were kids.

Side note - that newfangled math is exactly the way I've always done it in my head.  I had problems in school often because I did math in my head, and couldn't write it out and show my work the way the teachers wanted.  Now, they switched it to exactly the same way I wasn't allowed to do it when I was in school.  

With that said, I do not think that the new style is better than the old ways.  It happened to work well for me because I did it in my head.  But, it seems unnecessarily difficult to write it out the new way.  I guess most math is real life is done in one's head though.....

That's true, it's a lot like making change.

What math do you actually use in real life:
- Making change is going away, tap to pay, pay by phone, who uses cash anymore. I do for coffee, that's about it.
- Calculating tax and tips in your head, very useful!
- Unit conversions, living in a country that uses all units it's pretty necessary.
- Square meters / square footage for home improvement stuff.
- Diagonal dimensions to width / height for 16:9 displays, always need that!
- Time estimates to get somewhere, although google maps will tell you.
That's about it.

I did finally use algebra when playing Elite Dangerous. Fun to calculate at which velocity I should engage the engines to stop in time, given a certain starting height, max engine thrust and known g factor of the planet below. Then trust my 200 million credits ship on my math, start free fall and stop 10 meters above the surface. Adrenaline rush lol.