Photograph Bruno Marcal
illustrates Thales Molina
edition Felipe van Deursen
Everyone suffers from thorny topics that require memorizing. They are useless in practical life and almost nobody deals with them after the entrance exam. Only not. Knowledge of these topics changed the world and made life easier for everyone. And they are amazing. The problem is not the content, but the way they appear for the first time, at school, when people are more concerned with recess and time to go home than with what is on the blackboard. See which professionals deal with the most feared STEM subjects and how they apply them at work – always better than at school
SERIES ESCOLA MALDITA
– Physical
– Mathematics
– Chemical
– Biology
– History
– Geography
– Portuguese and Literature
THE MATHEMATICS MASSACRE
Giant beads, absurd formulas, xis and epsilons that never end. Why, heavens, why!?
Prime numbers
What is it– 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19… These are the numbers that cannot be divided by any other than itself and 1. The kinship in the name confuses the head and leaves a question: “What Does this change my life?” basically nothing
Who use– Mathematicians, cryptographers, investigators (if they need to open a safe, for example)
But the truth is– When they need to use thousands of different combinations, cryptographers can turn to a key generator, such as RSA, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. No one needs to know the prime numbers by heart.
Bhaskara
What is it– Formula that helps solve any problem involving quadratic equations, in which you need to find the xis of the question. Just glancing around gives you butterflies in your stomach, the human gallery would say
Who use– Mathematicians, civil and mechanical engineers, and even employment lawyers
But the truth is– Nobody fills a notebook with the formula. Nowadays, professionals use scientific calculators to do these calculations.
Headquarters
What is it– Mathematical structures in the form of a table, with rows and columns. They serve to help organize data and information. So far, beauty. But that’s where square matrices and determinants come in, which put an end to the citizen’s happiness
Who use– Mathematicians, engineers, economists, administrators
But the truth is– Any simple table from programs like Excel uses the matrix concept, without having to add, multiply or subtract all the time. Long live technology!
irrational numbers
What is it“They really make you lose your reason. They are decimal numbers, non-repeating and infinite. The most famous in the category is the Pi (3.141592…). Roots of rational numbers that are not exact also fall into this group. For example, the square root of 2 is 1.41421356… Aaaaaaargh!
Who use– Mathematicians, physicists, administrators, engineers, accountants
But the truth is– With the exception of the professional nobles above, the other mortals abbreviate the infinity of irrationals. Pi is only 3.14. And end of story
quadratic function
What is it– The dreaded formula f(x) = ax squared + bx+ c, which also appears as a graph
Who use– Physicists, civil engineers, biologists (in the process of photosynthesis in plants) and administrators (in relating cost, profit and revenue functions)
But the truth is– A lot of people use the function, but not in the boring way. Football players calculate parabolas to kick the ball. Like everyone else, they don’t apply the equation, just the concept.
Logarithm
What is it– Way to symbolize power. For example, 10 squared = 100 can be represented as log 100 = 2. In other words, logarithm is the exponent number
Who use– Mathematicians, physicists, geologists (logarithms were fundamental in the creation of richter scalewhich measures the intensity of earthquakes)
But the truth is– They were in fact used a lot before the scientific calculator. They served to simplify divisions, multiplications, powers and roots. Today, they are pure vintage mathematics
Complex numbers
What is it– Very complex: represent the combination of real and imaginary numbers
Who use– Physicists, mathematicians, electrical engineers
But the truth is– They are in the calculations of quantum physics and the analysis of alternating current circuits. But they are calculations that any scientific calculator does. spare your neurons