First Square Root Day since 2009
There’s Pi Day, there’s even a World Math Day every year.
But Monday was Square Root Day, which happens only once every several years.
The last Square Root Day was 3-3-09 and the next one won’t be until 5-5-2025.
At Pocatello High School, Troy Johnson teaches his class to find a formula for x and y, giving them a value. He said math teachers hope to show students not only that math is important, but that numbers play a huge role day-to-day.
“Almost everybody uses a certain amount of math in their life every day, even if it’s just counting and adding,” said Thomas Sanford, a math teacher at Highland High School. “There’s numbers all over the place, not just when it comes to money but things like distances and time.”
Square Root Day is the perfect example of numbers being everywhere.
The fourth month times the fourth day of the month squared equals the year 2016. since four squared is 16, 4-4-2016 is a square root day.
Just like the majority of people wouldn’t pay attention to those numbers to know they’re significant, people don’t realize principles of math they learned in school are applicable everywhere.
“Sometimes when they’re thinking about rates and ratios, as far as like grocery shopping, how much am I paying per pound for this or per ounce for that,” said Johnson.
People also use percentages when they shop, such as figuring out 30 percent or 70 percent off an item. But numbers play a big role in other areas too.
“I think one aspect that a lot of kids overlook sometimes is sports,” said Johnson. “There is a ton of statistical analysis that goes into sports and the sporting events. The people that run ESPN and the newscasters on ESPN look at statistics every day all day long in order to sound knowledgeable.”
Even just the thinking process used in learning math is beneficial.
“Albert Einstein said that education is what remains when what was learned in school has been forgotten,” said Sanford. “So even if you don’t use a specific thing from math class, the fact that you had to sit there and pay attention to details and struggle through it, that’s something you use every day.”
Math teachers said that the analytical thinking process it takes to do math helps people in their future careers. Even if they’re not doing math specifically, the ability to look at a complex problem and solve it, is a skill needed in any job.
Johnson said Square Root Day is a unique day that will hopefully make people consider the relevance of numbers, even if it’s just for a moment.
