Mathematics Is All Around Us :  What is the first thing you do when you get up? Make yourself a nice cup of tea or coffee? If so, then you're using mathematics! Do you agree? Consider a carpenter making a table. Does he use mathematics in any way? Look at a tailor, a cowherd, a vegetable buyer or a mason. Do they use mathematics in any way?' When we use public transport, or drive our own vehicle, or pay our child's school fees, we are using mathematics. Making a 'charpai', sending a satellite up into orbit, building roads and bridges - can any of these activities be done without using mathematics?

And what about the various sports activities? A cricket captain once said that if he got his field placement right, half the job of getting the other team out would be done. And what floes field placement require? An astute sense of the game and of space. Kho-kho, kabaddi, football, basketball, etc., all require an instinctive awareness and utilisation of space. What about board games like chess? While playing, you need to think of a winning strategy. For this you need to construct the possible movements at any instant, given the conditions under which the different pieces are allowed to move. In 'Ashta changa', Ludo, 'chaupad', Trade, and other such games, the players use a lot of mathematics.

You can think of many more instances of our contact with mathematics while doing the following exercises.

El) Think of an indoor game and an outdoor sport that you or your children play. Write down what mathematics is used while playing them.

E2) "I do a lot of maths while working in the kitchen", says a friend of mine. List 4 ways in which mathematics is used in the kitchen.

E3) In a conversation with a friend I said, "Maths is in virtually everything around us. Even activities like making 'rangoli' patterns, making designs and prints for clothes, dancing, feeding one's children and catching a train involve mathematics." He disagreed violently and said, "Some of the things you mention can perhaps have some elements of mathematics.

But all of them don't involve mathematics." Would you agree with my friend or with me? Why?

Aren't you convinced by now that mathematics permeates all the areas of your life that interest and excite you? It is another matter that you may not be aware of it. To add more substance to our point, consider another situation.

Lata wants to put up a swing on the tree in front of her house, and wants to enjoy swinging on it. Does she need or use any mathematics for this? To put up the swing she needs a rope and an appropriate branch of the tree. There are several questions that she needs to ask, like:

1. How high should the branch be?

2. How sturdy should it be?

3. Will any other branches obstruct the ropes when someone uses the swing?

4. How long should the rope be? Does the length of rope have any relationship with the height of the branch?

5. How thick should the rope be?

6. Can Lata and her friend swing together?

To answer all these questions Lata has to have a sense of mathematics. For example, to answer Question 3, she needs to have a feel for geometry! She has to mentally visualise the sweep of the ropes when the swing is going up or down, and decide if any branch of the tree would interfere with the swing.

Suppose Lata succeeds in putting up her swing. With no one to push her, she can move the swing by pulling and pushing the ropes and shifting her weight on the swing rhythmically.. As the swing starts going up and down, she has to match the rhythm and pattern of the movements of the swing, and has to apply force in a way that makes the swing go higher and higher.

So, in putting up and using the swing Lata is using her experience to estimate a lot of mathematically calculable quantities. She works through the estimates, checks them and decides to use them or take up another set of estimates. She does all this mathematics without realising that she's doing it. And therefore, she does it without stress, boredom and frustration!

The following exercises give you a chance to look at this and other examples more closely.

E4) Which areas of mathematics does Lata need to know to be able to answer the questions given above? Explain your choice of area.

By now you must have realised that mathematics is not limited to the school textbook. In fact, we can see mathematics all around us. But, is it in everything we do? Let's find out.