When I was in college I majored in computers and minored in math. I still incorporate some of that math knowledge in programming but truthfully, not much. There is one little mathematical concept I use all the time though so I thought I would share it.
A ratio is a relationship between two values and a proportion can be used to solve problems involving ratios. You don’t need to know the names of the values (extremes, product and means), just a simple little formula, multiply B times C and divide by A.
For example, my odometer is not accurate due to the size of the tires which are larger than the original ones mounted on my truck 27 years ago. Now I have a GPS that has a built-in trip odometer that tells me what my real mileage is. So, I set both to zero and compare them later.
The trucks odometer says I’ve gone 195 miles, but the GPS says the true amount is 182. So, since I change my oil religiously at 3,000 miles, how many more miles can I really drive before a change?
Think of it this way: A is to B as C is to X.
The answer is 214 miles…
Hey, I’ve been waking up my programming chops and I just came up with this:
You can launch the app by clicking ↑