Author(s): Evan M. Glazer; John W. McConnell
"Why do we have to learn this?" is a common question relative to mathematics study. This reference book intends to
answer that query by providing examples of real-life applications related to high-school mathematical concepts.
The authors, both with academic mathematical backgrounds, posit more than 40 concepts that appear in the U.S.
mathematics education standards, among them Matrices, Plane, Pythagorean theorem, Rotations, and Series. The
intended audience includes high-school students, teachers, and librarians, although mathematics teachers are the
ones most likely to understand all the concepts and formulas.
The entries, arranged alphabetically, range from two to six pages. After an opening paragraph definition, various
applications in science, sports, business, architecture, and other topics are explained. The term everyday usually
refers to public activity rather than school or home life. A few diagrams and graphs accompany the text. Related
URLs complete the entry. Some cross-references exist, but they are not consistently used. A bibliography of
sources concludes the volume; an index is sorely needed.
Entries on Probability, Perimeter, and Quadrilaterals are very thorough and almost too elementary at points, although
those same entries also describe related advanced math concepts. On the other hand, entries such as Tangent and
Polynomial functions are at once too brief and complex. Although natural logarithms are briefly mentioned, no
accompanying application is clearly noted. Nearly a page is devoted to symmetry, but Markov chains and fuzzy
logic are vaguely explained in a sentence or two. The absence of entries on algorithms, measurement, modeling,
set theory, transformations, and limits is puzzling.
The book's approach makes it more useful as a reference tool than a math enrichment volume. It does provide some
useful application ideas across the math curriculum, more for the adult educator than the teenager, and might be
useful in high-school libraries.
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