MATH APPLICATION IN REAL LIFE?

Blog Entry #6 by STEM D-iary

Students nowadays question their teachers, professors and even their parents about the application of their lessons especially in Mathematics.

We all know the application of basic mathematics, add, subtract, divide and multiply. But when you reach the age where you encounter broaden mathematics, you're going to ask this questions to yourselves.

Photo Courtesy: authorSTREAM

 What about Logarithms

Well maybe, if you're now a High School student, you may have heard the word Logarithms from your Math Teacher. If you're a Senior High School student or College student, I'm sure you know how to solve some problems involving Logarithms. Have you ever wandered where is it used in real life?

There are several ways in applying Logarithms in real life. As we go to College, we'll appreciate its help in building our country.

Today, not only in the Philippines, but in the whole world, we know that Earthquake precautions, measurements and other practices is a must priority in every country. Especially now in the Philippines, study shows that faults in the Philippines hasn't moved for years. 

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Moment Magnitude is a quantitative measure of an earthquake's magnitude. To measure it, Japanese seismologist Hiroo Kanamori and American seismologist Thomas C. Hanks developed it in the 1970s. 

Calculations of an earthquake's size using the moment magnitude scale are tied to an earthquake's seismic moment rather than to the amplitudes of seismic waves recorded by seismographs. 

And to speak of Moment Magnitude Scale Logarithms is applied in calculating the earthquake's magnitude by it. How do I say so? Take a look on the formula used in Moment Magnitude Scale.

This formula was reported by Thatcher and Hanks (1973)

In combining the works of seismologists...

Hanks & Kanamori (1979) defined a new magnitude scale based on estimates of seismic content.

But wait... This was not taught to me when I was studying in Grade School nor Junior High School. Yes! What I learned about is the Richter Magnitude Scale and of course I am very aware that you may know this already.

Hey folks, he is Charles Richter. He developed past studies until he formulated the Richter Magnitude Scale that is taught maybe not only in the Philippines but the whole world rather. Of course, I won't include this if it doesn't involve Logarithms in it. 

The Richter Magnitude of an earthquake is determined from the logarithm of the amplitude of waves recorded by seismographs. The formula is:

Now, you can conclude whether this Math lessons are applicable in real life. Or is this still insufficient? 

Let me give you other ways in applying Logarithms in real life. 

- In chemistry, logarithm is used in determining the pH and pOH values. 

- In physics, logarithm is used in measuring the sound intensity or the loudness or softness.

- In astronomy, logarithm simplified the task of many astronomers and others who spent much of their time doing tedious numerical computations.

There are a lot of ways in applying not only Logarithm, but other Mathematical equations in real LIFE!

So wake up from that questioning of yours just like us. Due to the hardness, I can understand that you will eventually question yourself or ask questions from others when to use or where to use this kind of stuffs.

This will be our last blog entry and I hope you had a blast reading it.

We thank you for your time spending reading this. For upcoming blogs, just stay tuned. '

AGAIN, THANK YOU!

From STEM D-iary Authors

Susmita Angelique Ramos

Mark Ryan Mora and

Nestor Paul Casipit