Remember sitting through high school math class while the teacher droned on about polynomial equations and thinking there wasn't a chance you'd ever use any of it in life? Well, if you're like most Americans, chances are your 17-year-old self was absolutely correct.
As it turns out, less than a quarter of U.S. workers report using math any more complicated than basic fractions and percentages during the course of their jobs. The graphs below are based on survey data compiled by Northeastern University sociologist Michael Handel. Handel surveyed about 2,300 workers first from 2004 through 2006, then again between 2007 and 2009. The catchall category of "any more advanced" math includes algebra through calculus. And as you can see, most workers aren't doing a whole lot of high-level computations.
You might be surprised by who's doing the most advanced math day-to-day. It's not white-collar workers. Rather, it's high-skill blue-collar workers, shown in dark blue on the graph below. Before you glance over it, here's a breakdown of jobs categories:
Sirhc978 on April 28th, 2020 at 19:46 UTC »
Machinist/CNC programmer here. I use trigonometry literally every day. Sometimes when a weird part comes across my desk, I need to break into a little bit of my pre-cal/calc II knowledge. Polar coordinates have even come in handy before.
JustPlainSimpleGarak on April 28th, 2020 at 19:38 UTC »
In school, I was top notch at math and science, and a horrific failure at classes involving reading/writing/etc.
I went on to become a Nuclear Engineer, which seemed like a logical path for my interests and skill set.
I do pretty much 0 math at my job. All calculations are done by software I did not write. All data manipulation is done using excel or basic scripts that I write.
Probably 70% of my job is either reading or writing. Jokes on me.
TacTurtle on April 28th, 2020 at 19:02 UTC »
Most of the white collar math has been programmed or pre-calculated so most of it goes on in the back ground, right?