#49: Cool Jobs that Involve Math

Yep! That job requires math!

Tony DeRose is a 3D animator at Pixar and in his TED-Ed video,  he talks about how math plays an important role in his job.  Nafees Bin Zafar is also in the movie making business.  He is a visual effect expert who has helped create some of the most memorable smashes, crashes, and dashes on the movie screen.

How can you spend your Math Minutes this week?
  • Read Cool Jobs: Math as entertainment from Science News for Students.   You can also download a .pdf version of the article by clicking here.  Pick out one of the jobs mentioned in the article and leave a comment about how math is used in their job.  When posting a comment, use your first name, grade, and school (i.e. Tyler, 5, Sunset).  Do not publish your email.
  • Magician Arthur Benjamin mentions that his favorite number is 2,520 because it is the smallest, yes I said smallest, number divisible by all the numbers 1 through 10.  Prove this on a piece of paper by doing all the division problems and then take a picture of it.  Send the picture to the EY coordinator at your building or send it to your teacher and have him/her forward it to the EY coordinator.  BTW…Arthur Benjamin has a super cool TED Talk.  Watch it if you have time!
  • Describe the difference between a 2-D and 3-D printer.  What are some advantages of 3-D printing?  If you had your own 3-D printer, what are some things you would like to make?  If you’re really interested in 3D printing, here’s a link to another Science News for Students article on that topic.  Feel free to leave a comment about something new and interesting you learned!
Math is so much more than a bunch of problems on a worksheet or even a series of problems on a website or app.  Begin to imagine the creative ways in which mathematics plays a role in a variety of careers!

14 thoughts on “#49: Cool Jobs that Involve Math

  1. I noticed that he was just multyplying by that number. He was funny and had a quick mind. He sounded like an auctioneer in the end.

  2. If you have a 2d printer you’ll only print pictures but with a 3d printer you can make a toy or something.

  3. Now I know that you can print 3-d objects with this printer. You can use different materiels like plastic metal and food to print something that is 3-D. They have done lots of things but a house. They’ve been working on that one for a long time. They hope to get it done soon.

  4. Magic uses math becuase they have to figure out the time of the acts and also use math in their tricks by cauculating the time of when things will disappear or something popping up or down. Math is so amazing that they and every other job NEEDS! To use it without it we all would be lost.

  5. Wow! Bin Zafar’s job is to make things in a movie look more realistic and like they might actually happen in real life. He uses math to find out how to make glass or metal in movies do the things that he wants them to do like bend, twist or any other movement.

  6. 3-d printers are so cool. I’ve heard of 3-d printers, but I never knew you could do that much with one. Think about it…you could almost live off of 3- d printers, but you would need food and water and some other bare necessities.

  7. I thought that the 3-D printer was super cool, but if they make a big printer will they be able to print a house?

  8. 3-d printers are amazing! You can do so much with them there are so many different uses for these amazing machines, you can use them for almost everything! It is so crazy how much technology has improved and developed now we can do so much more than what we could have done 10 years ago.

  9. Bin Zafar’s job is even more amazing because with math, he figures out how to make everything fake look like it’s part of humanity. He also needs to find what is in buildings and how long everything falling or in the structure needs to be.

  10. Bin Zafar’s job is to make everything fake, look like it’s part of humanity. With math, he’s able to make things fall in seconds and make sure that the animations are not taking away from the illusion by going through each other.

  11. I like the 3d printer. It makes a lot of sense that if you have a 2d printer it prints pictures and with a 3d printer it prints objects.

  12. 3d printers can be very cool. They make objects that are not just a flat piece of paper. You can even make a toy, but usually in that case lots of people use it for different and sometimes important things. Even though they’re expensive, people can’t resist this cool invention.

  13. 3-D printers are actually a thing? This blows my mind. Does this mean anything can be made by a 3-D printer? I mean, anything? Hey, guys of my generation! Let’s make even cooler inventions to blow other people’s minds!

Leave a Reply to Thomas, Prairie Lane 6 th Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *