What sort of maths do you need for every day? Do you know enough to get by?

I can use my brain to manage most simple calculations in everyday life such as adding and subtracting without much problems. Multiplication and division are OK for me too, however it must just be simple calculation and not complicated ones. But if you give me a paper or a calculator, I will be much better at calculating because the numbers are right in front of me to deal with. I remember back in the school days where the teacher will give us a long story and ask us to change it all to one simple algebraic equation, and then ask us to solve it. Right now I can't think of an example, but algebra certainly has its place in everyday life. I am sure logarithms had their use too, but I can't think of it right off hand. But for me, I think the most useful skill to learn in maths is trigonometry. I remember a friend in college gave me a tough math quiz question to solve; I tried many different math formula and theorems to try and solve it but I still couldn't. Never once did I think of using trigonometry because the question didn't reek of trigonometry at all. That was when my friend did the magic using trigonometry and solved the problem. I was in awe, and it certainly changed my perception of trigonometry from then on. But all in all, I think we all can survive with just basic maths. Let us just leave the complicated maths to the experts in the field.....

I was terrified by arithmetic and maths at school. Totally phobic about it. But then I got my first pay packet and I made sure that it was right! I use simple arithmetic every day several times a day. I suppose that if I look to see how far away something is or what rough angle an object is then I use geometry. I use percentages sometimes but I don't think that I have used a logarithm in nearly forty years. Anyone want to buy a slide rule?

oandaeyes I use the plain old add,subtract, multiply and divide as beyongd that I am totally lost. Ican't fathom algebra, and did not even try trigonometry and geometry let alone calculus.For me the simpler the better as I just use math when buying things or paying bills and balancing my checkbook.

I am still studying, so math is an every day routine for me. I am fine with calculating in my head and solving equations or logarithms. I think I know much more than I could use in my everyday life, for example when going shopping. Anyway, I need to know that, cause I am having tests regularly at school, so I must be prepared.

Well, obviously it is important to be able to do the basic elementary math that we learned in our first couple of years of school. So that would be addition, substraction, division and multiplication. I also think that it is important to have money sense and also to be able to use fractions. However, beyond that I don't think that much of the math that we learn while in school has applications that are used on a regular basis by the general population.