“When will I ever need to use the Pythagorean Theorem” – or “How I used basic geometry/ math skills
I was a history major. I love to read and I love stories. Hence History! I was further inspired to declare that major when I realized that Dr. Carrol the founder of Christendom College and author of his own text books taught history classes that I would be taking. But I digress. I spent the last 24 years selling historical donuts in the corporate world. IE, I used my awesome liberal arts degree liberally, but not teaching history or being a historian! So yes I used a little math here and there when I could not figure out a way for excel to do it for me. Then I was downsized for a second time. So I started a one man show Handyman business, A Home and Garden Handyman, LLC. We are back on track now, because I was going to tell you how I used math for my new job. A customer built a very large shed/ barn a while back. Now it needs a door.
I sent off a sketch of what I proposed for a sliding door with a quote and held my breath.
They accepted. So now I needed to get to the nickels and dimes of ordering the supplies. I needed x of these length boards and x of these length boards. The artistic side of me loved that I could pick the trim board widths, and had I been an art major, I might know something about eye pleasing proportions. But how long or short can I go with the / or the \ on either side of the door? So I divided my door in half, that was easy. I knew the height of the door and Half the width. | and _ but not the / or \. But somewhere in my file cabinet of life notes I knew I had enough to figure out the missing side. I just did not recall what it was called or what the formula was. I could have asked my kids or wife, but google was omnipresent and they were nowhere to be found. So the answer was that I could get away with ordering 8 foot boards for my / and \. So if you are a kid in school asking when will I ever need to know this, I would say you may not, but after 24 years of not using math or geometry, you may need to remember that way back when, you once learned something that sure would help being accurate in your guesses. Please enjoy my door as much as I enjoyed building and installing it. Here are some pictures of it. And If you have a shed or a barn in need of a door, A Home and Garden Handyman, LLC would love to do the math and the building for you!
