Bachelor of Science in Computing

Stage 2, Semester 1

November 2022

Final Assignment

Module Title: Mathematics for IT2

Module Code: BSC20922
Assessment Type: Individual Project 1
Weighting: 40%
Maximal Possible Mark: 100 marks
Allocation date: 07/11/2022
Submission date: 30/11/2022
 Bachelor of Science in Computing

Stage 2, Semester 1

November 2022

Final Assignment

Lecturer Name: Mit Patel

Student Name: Joelma Rodrigues
Student ID: 24130
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 4
Linear, quadratic, cubic and rational functions........................................................................6
Trigonometry, interpolation and circular functions.................................................................9
Limits, differentiation, and integration..................................................................................11
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 14
References..............................................................................................................................15
Introduction

Studies show that mathematical skills influences making everyday decisions, analysing and
solving problems with accessible information (Chaparro, 2017). Very unlikely that Bhaskara's
Formula is used in a daily routine, although maths and numeracy skills are used at all
moments, and the greatest part is that it is intuitive (Williams, 2022).

There are various straightforward examples of where basic maths is used in daily life:

I. Managing Time
Planning a day and reading a clock requires basic maths skills.
Example 1: When reading an analogue clock, the
following information must be used to calculate
the time.
1h = 60min | 1min = 60sec

So, 60min divided by 12 = 5min

And the small hand indicates the hour (h), the

bigger hand shows the minutes (min), and the
red clock hand indicates the seconds (sec).

Example 2: Aware that you live 45min away from

college and that your first class starts at 9 am.
Figure 1: Analog Clock Font: westerstrand.se
What time should you leave? (considering normal
conditions)
''
9 00 00'
You should leave at 8:15 am
- 0 45'' 00'
8 15 00
II. Cooking
For instance, when cooking, you might need to double or divide a recipe or add 2/3
of the flour at first and the remaining afterwards (1/3).

Although most recipes are done "by eye", only consistent mathematical comprehension
makes this expertise possible (Williams, 2022).

Figure 2: Banana Pancake Recipe

Font: online.visual-paradigm.com
 III. Flying and Geometry
Analysing the dimensions of the space where objects have to be placed before attempting
to fit them in seems obvious to most people. However, looking at this image where a man
tries to fit his hand luggage into an aircraft overhead compartment, the importance of
geometry in real life is perceptible.

Considering the space in the overhead

compartment has the following
dimensions (H1 x L1 x D1):
 30 cm x 45 cm x 50 cm

And his hand luggage (H2 x L2 x D2):

 43 cm x 36 cm x 23 cm

In this case, he is trying to fit his luggage

along the length (L2 – 36cm) in relation
to the overhead bin height (H1 – 30cm).

L2 > H1
At the end of the video, a flight
attendant helps the man to fit his
luggage correctly.
Figure 3: Overhead Luggage Font: dailymail.co.uk
 D2 < H1 (depthwise)

After briefly exemplifying how basic mathematics affects daily life, following the same
logical thought, this assignment aims to demonstrate where diverse mathematics functions
come into actual life practices.
Linear, quadratic, cubic and rational functions

1. Discount and Linear Function

Having in mind that a linear function is expressed as f(x) = ax
What is f(x)? What does a mean? How about x?
 Real-life example: Tesco announced a 10% discount on all products from brand P.
How would you know it is cheaper to buy from Brand P than from another brand in
each case?
That can be expressed as f(x)= 0,9x
f(x) represents the question: How much will the product cost after the 10% discount?
0,9 is a: the discount. 100% - 10% = 90% or 0.9
x is the price of the product before the discount.
 Applying:
Brand P has a coffee that costs € 10,00 before the discount. Applying the linear function
f(x)= 0,9x
f(x)= 0,9⋅ € 10,00
f(x)= € 9,00
How much will the product cost after the 10% discount? € 9,00 after discount.

2. Buses and Quadratic Function

Or 2nd degree polynomial function is represented by the expression: f(x) = ax2 + bx + c

where a ≠ 0.

Real-life example: Bus Éireann and Expressway rent

buses for student groups of 35 or more going to
Cliffs of Moher. If the group contains precisely 35
people, each student will pay EUR 60.00. For larger
groups, it reduces EUR 1.00 for each passenger
exceeding 35.
If the capacity of each bus is 50 passengers, how
large should the group be for Bus Éireann and
Expressway to obtain maximum revenue
(Nascimento, 2015)?
That question can be expressed as a quadratic
Figure 4: Bus Font: buseireann.ie
function.
Defining the revenue by R:
I. R = number of students in the group times payment per person
Let x be the number of students that exceeds 35.
Therefore:
II. Number of people in the group = 35+x
III. Payment per person = 60 – x

Replacing (II) and (III) in (I):

R=( 35+ x )( 60−x )
2
R(x )=−x +25 x+2100

Substituting the values in Bhaskara's formula:

−b ± √ b 2−4 ac
2a

−25 ± √ 252 −4 (−1 )( 2100 )

x=
2 (−1 )

x 1=−35
x 2=60

Maximum revenue (M R ) of R is given by:

x1 + x2
M R=
2
−35+60
M R=
2
M R =12 ,5

As x represents the number of students, x must be an integer:

x = 12 or x = 13
2
R(x )=−x +25 x+2100
2
R ( 12 )=−(12) +25 ( 12 ) +2100

R ( 12 )=EUR 2256 , 00

2
R ( 13 )=−(13) + 25 (13 )+ 2100

R ( 13 )=EUR 2256 , 00

For Bus Éireann and Expressway to obtain maximum revenue, the student group must
contain 12 or 13 people in addition to the 35. i.e. group of 47 = 35 + 12 or 48 = 35 + 13.
 3. Aquarium and Cubic Function

A cubic function is expressed by f ( x )=a x +b x +cx + d , where a ≠ 0.

3 2

Real-life example: Assuming you have an aquarium measuring 2 m x 2 m. And you want to
know how many litres of water you need to fill your aquarium.

 Considering the volume

3
formula of a cube V =a .

Therefore,
3
v (x )=x

Where V represents the volume and X

the side of the aquarium.

V ( 2 )=23
V ( 2 )=8 m3

 1 m³ = 1,000l
Figure 5: Aquarium Font: danielcamolez.wordpress
So, you need 8,000L of water to fill
your aquarium.

4. Travelling and Rational Function

P(x)
It is usually represented as R ( x )=
Q( x )
John's grandfather left Galway at 3 pm
heading to Dublin, where he arrived at 9
pm.
Galway is 450km away. What is your
grandfather's average speed during this
trip?

Average speed is the time interval

divided by the distance travelled
(Academy, n.d.).
Δs
v avg=
Δt

Δt =9 pm−3 pm
Figure 6: Driving Font: dreamstime.com Δs = 0- 450km
Δt=6
450
v avg= =75
6
Therefore, the average speed of John's grandfather on this trip was 75 km/h.
Trigonometry, interpolation and circular functions

1. Aeroplanes and Trigonometry

It is the part of mathematics that studies the connection between the sides and angles of
triangles.
Real-life example: A plane takes off,
following a straight path, forming an
angle of 30° with the ground (assume
that the region flown by plane is flat).
After travelling 1000 meters, what
height does the plane reach?
The answer can be simply calculated by
Figure 7: Flying using a trigonometric function given by:
opposite
Sin30° =
hypotenuse
In this case: 1 x
=
The opposite is x (height), 2 1000
1000
And the hypotenuse is 1000m. x= x=500 m
2

 The plane reached 500m.

2. Extra Income and Interpolation

The ability to presume a value between two values in a table or line graph. Although many
people can interpolate intuitively, the example below shows the formal mathematical
approach behind intuition (Toppr, 2022).

Real-life example: You are trying to get extra income by selling water bottles at sports
events. The table shows how much you earn when you sell a certain quantity of bottles of
water.

Bottles Watter 20 40 60 120

Income € 40 € 80 € 120 € 240

 How much would you earn if you sold 50 bottles of water?

Applying the values to the Linear Interpolation Formula:
 y= y 1+
( y 2− y 1
x 2−x 1 )⋅ ( x−x 1 )

The table displays the following values: (20, 40), (40, 80), (60, 120), (120, 240)
 By picking up any two of those values, y can be found.
Y is how much you earn in relation to X
X is the number of bottles sold
 In this case (40, 80) (60, 120)
X 1 =40 y=80+ ( 120−80
60−40 )
⋅ ( 50−40 )

X 2 =60

Y 1=80
y=80+ ( 2040 ) ⋅10
Y 2=120
y=80+2⋅ 10
X =50 y =80+20
y=100
Y =?

 When you sell 50 bottles of water, you earn € 100,00.

3. Circular Function
They may also be called trigonometric, periodic, or angular functions. All these names are
due to its main characteristics, which are consequences of its formation law:
 Angular because they are related to turns and angles of a circle;
 Trigonometric because this circle is the trigonometric cycle;
 Periodic because they form a graph with drawings that repeat.

Real-life example: For a science fair, a group of students decided to build a model of a
house, as shown below. The roof is made with a 1m long Styrofoam board, which was split
in half to make the two parts of the roof—knowing that the roof is made at an angle of 55 °.
What Styrofoam board size should they buy to build the house's base (width)?

The function that represents that question is: y=2 x

Adjacent side
And x is: Cos 55°=
Hypotenuse
X
x 0 , 57=
0.5
X =0.57 ⋅0.5
X=0,285
y=2 x => y=2⋅0.285=0 , 57 m

 Thus, the house has a width of 0.57 m or 57 cm.

Limits, differentiation, and integration
1. Cooking and Limits
The limit aims to determine the behaviour of a function as it approaches some values,
always in relation to the points x and y
(Silva, s.d.).

Real-life example: Ana saw a juicy chicken

recipe for Christmas dinner on the
internet, which says that the chicken needs
to be in the oven for 2h at 150°C degrees,
but before leaving the chicken in the oven,
Ana needs to preheat the oven for 20
minutes.
Will the temperature in the oven be stuck
at 150°C after 20min?

How the temperature behaves timewise can

be expressed as a limit: Figure 8: Oven Font: dreamstime.com

lim ⁡ T ( t ) ¿ 150 ° C
t→∞

Meaning: when Ana presses the

button to turn on the oven, as time
goes by, the temperature of the
oven approaches 150°C. However,
due to external conditions, the
temperature never stabilises at
150°C. It fluctuates, meaning that as
time passes, the oven temperature
tends to 150°C.
 2. Farmer and Differentiation
In calculus, determining a function's derivatives is known as differentiation, the rate at
which one changes in relation to another (Cuemath, 2022).

Real-life example: Connor has a farm in

Connemara with 200 oxen weighing 300
kg. So far, he has spent € 380,000.00 to
raise the oxen and will continue to spend
€ 2.00 daily to keep each ox. The oxen
gain weight at a rate of 1.5 kg per day.
Its sale price today is € 18.00 a kilo, but it
drops 5 cents daily (Dicas de Calculo,
2017).
How long should the farmer wait to
increase his profit?

Oxen: b = 200
Weight of each ox: p = 300 Kg
Cost so far: € 380,000
Figure 9: Bull Font: clipartkey.com

 A bull gain 1.5 kg a day, so 200 ⋅300+200 ⋅1.5 d

 The weight of kg is also changing as the days go by in the following relationship:
Price per kg ¿ 18−0.05 d
 So far, the farmer has had a cost of R$ 380,000. However, each new day that the
oxen stay on the farm generates more costs
The total cost of herding = 320000+200.2 d

Substituting the general equation, we obtain the following approval

Profit = ( 200 ⋅300+200.1 , 5 d ) ⋅ (18−0 , 05 d )−( 380000+ 200⋅ 2d )
Profit = −15 d 2 +200 d +700000
P' ( d )=−( 2 ⋅15 d 2−1 ) + ( 2000 ⋅1⋅ d 1−1 )
'
P ( d )=−30 d +2000

 To find where the profit function reaches its highest value, know the maximum profit. For
this, apply the derivative and set it equal to zero because there are maximum and minimum
points at the points where the derivative is zero.
0=−30 d +2000
d ≅ 66 , 6

Therefore, the farmer must wait 67 days to maximise his profit.

 3. Integration

The concept of the integral arose from the need to calculate the area of a curve, where
these curves are defined by functions (SILVA, n.d.).

The formula to calculate the area

shown in the image:

b
A=∫ f ( x ) ⅆx
a

Example: Consider f ( x )=x 2−4

So,

)|
4

( 1 3
3
x −4 x
2

( 13 ⋅ ( 4) −9 ⋅4)−( 13 (2 ) −4 ⋅ 2)
3 3

Figure 10: Curve Font: dicasdecalculo.com

The area is square units.

32
3
Conclusion

Associating real-life situations with mathematical problems can be complex when learning
certain subjects, mainly when the focus in class is to make the student substitute values in a
formula correctly, lacking an appropriate context; after dozens of exercises with given
values, the content application can be easily ignored.

Although it is possible to live without maths skills, most aspects of daily life involve some
form of maths. When cooking, measuring ingredients, and counting calories. We also use
maths when shopping, budgeting, and calculating expenses. In addition, maths is essential
when we are driving, calculating distances and speeds. We even use maths when playing
sports, measuring angles and distances. Without a basic understanding of maths, everyday
life would be much more difficult.
References
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com-sorriso-image161935473
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[Accessed November 2022].
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[Accessed 22 Nov 2022].
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