Saturday, March 20, 2021
Random thought about useful math
While looking at some archives of courseware, I was intuitively estimating how much of the mass is constant overhead of HTML crap, versus the variables of real text and animation.
Convective thought: This type of net/gross estimation is UNIVERSAL in all practical uses of math.
Businesses know how much of their cost is constant monthly expenses, how much varies linearly with the real materials, and how much is the real materials and labor.
Tax calculations involve a separation between basic rate and marginal rate. Shopping requires separating net weight from package weight. When you compare job opportunities, you account separately for the constant of commuting and the variable of hours actually worked.
Bridges and balances, my recent focus, are specifically meant to cancel out the package and measure only the contents.
Despite the universality of this distinction, we don't have a notation or function or operator on the same level as addition and logarithms. In a standardized formula like y = ax + b, we know by habit and convention that the letters early in the alphabet are probably constants, and the letters at the end of the alphabet are probably variables. But this is not guaranteed, and not really the same thing as net vs gross. 
Labels: Constants and Variables, Equipoise, Real World Math
¶ 8:17 AM
