When you buy a car, follow a recipe, or decorate your home, you're using

math principles. Whether you're sailing a boat off the coast of Japan or

building a house in Peru, you're using math to get things done. We realize

that math will not give you the answer to "the meaning of life", but it will

help you out in more ways than one. We all use math every day, most of the

time without even realizing it! How can math be so universal?

            First, human beings didn't invent math concepts; we discovered them.

Also, the language of math is numbers, not English or German or Russian. If

we are well versed in this language of numbers, it can help us make important

decisions and perform everyday tasks.

             The mathematics that we use and study today has evolved and developed

since the beginning of time.  The men and women who have worked in and

studied the discipline of mathematics have led interesting and sometimes

unusual lives.  What would life be without the mathematicians who discovered

the concepts we use every day?