Arguing that better numeracy leads to better engineering judgment and system outcomes.

Last month, I promised to explore teaching math in school. This has been an interest of mine for a long time (since I was a school pupil) but was rekindled by an excellent discussion I heard recently on BBC Radio 4’s program, “The Infinite Monkey Cage.”*

The panelists on the program were a mathematician, a statistician and a comedian. One of them made the point that if we gave a child a page of Japanese text to read they might say, “I don’t understand it—I will have to learn how to do that.”

However, when given a similarly incomprehensible page of mathematics, the usual attitude seems to be, “Either you can do this or you can’t. If you don’t understand it then you are obviously not suited to math so give up now.” The panelists, who are internationally renowned professors and scientists, agreed that they had all reached a point in their mathematical development where they felt like that. The only difference between them and us is that they got a bit further before hitting “the wall.”

When I was at school, every time a new concept was introduced in math the pupils seemed to react in one of two ways. Some needed to have fully grasped the details of the previous step before they could move on to the new topic whereas others were willing to accept that “it’s just that way,” leaving comprehension for a later date. The first group was being more conscientious and thorough, but this was stressful and was undoubtedly holding them back. The second group was more relaxed, and as a result, seemed to be better at math. As they used the new concept, without necessarily understanding it, the previous steps fell into place. When I was in 12th grade, I picked up the previous year’s textbook and thought “This was difficult last year, but it all looks so simple now.” Sadly, many of the conscientious students never got that far. Math, apparently, wasn’t their thing, or so they had been told over and over again.

This leads to two important questions: why is numeracy important and what can we do about it?

The panelists on the Infinite Monkey Cage referred to a study† showing that there is a direct correlation between numeracy and the ability to assess the veracity of statements, sorting facts from alternative facts and truth from misinformation. This is more important now than ever before, with the proliferation of lobbyists and “fake news.” This enhanced discernment applies to all types of information, not only those involving numbers, and is related to the way the brain develops when it is handling mathematical concepts. We can therefore improve our discernment by practicing our math. It doesn’t really matter whether it is serious or “recreational” math—puzzles, Sudoku, mental arithmetic and so on—it all helps.

This, in turn, leads me to the wonders of the fraction 1/17. In decimal form this is a recurring string of 16 digits: 0.058823529411764705882352941176470588…. Like its little brother, 1/7, which recurs as 0.14285714285714…, this 16-digit string can be replicated by multiplying, giving the same string of digits with a different starting point. Also like 1/7, if you take the first half of the string and add it to the second half of the string then each digit of the total is 9. If, at this stage, you are thinking, “What’s the point?”—you might have been in that first set of math pupils at school. If you are thinking, “Cool! I wonder what other numbers do that? It’s not just all primes because 1/11 is 0.09090909… and 1/5 is 0.2, so why are these ones special?”—then please share this with a young friend and help them to see that there’s more to math than hieroglyphics.

I was asked recently what advice I would give to a teenager who was considering a career in engineering and was good at math but didn’t particularly enjoy it. I firmly believe that the most important thing, above all others, is that engineers should be good communicators. As such, “read more” was my advice. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing a report, selling your research project to investors or asking your boss for a pay raise. Engineers need to be skillful with language so that they can be master persuaders.

The second most important thing is that engineers should want to help people. This job is all about solving people’s problems, so if you don’t have a real desire to make things better for other people then it is going to be kind of pointless.

The third piece of advice is to find a hobby totally unrelated to engineering. This might be sport or literature—for me it is making music, whether that is singing in a chamber choir or playing sax in a swing band. The important thing is I can’t be thinking about work when I am rehearsing or performing because I will screw up if I do, so it’s a great way of switching off from the pressures of work.

These seem to be three odd things to top the list, particularly in a column titled “Math Matters,” but once these three priorities are addressed, my advice would be to cultivate an interest in math and learn to love the way that numbers work. This is not because there is a lot of math in engineering. I don’t think for the most part that there is (it is mainly arithmetic), but because it is an excellent way to develop a sense of investigative curiosity, which is an essential part of the problem-solving aspect of engineering. The world needs many more engineers, not just in refrigeration or their engineering prowess, but as valuable contributors to society on a greater, broader scale.