Male Narrator: Funding for this program is provided in part by... Female Narrator: We believe in getting outside, playing in the yard, growing things, and connecting with the earth.

We believe good can grow anywhere.

That is why we are committed to GroMoreGood everywhere.

And also by... Hi friends, I am Caroline and this is How It Math, where we discover the surprising ways math shows up in the real world and in amazing careers.

Have you ever wondered how pilots plan a flight, how commercials are created, or how data helps libraries serve their communities?

Today, we have a very special episode all about how math helps people plan, create, and communicate in their everyday work.

First, we are heading into aviation, where pilots use multi-digit numbers and decimals to plan flights and make important decisions.

Next, we'll go behind the scenes of commercial production, where teams use math with budgets, time, and large numbers to bring ideas to life.

After that, we'll visit a salon where stylists use fractions and measurements to mix products and create the perfect look, and finally, we will explore library e-books, where data and bar graphs help track how books are used and shared with the community.

From the sky to the screen to the salon to the library, you are about to see that math isn't just something you do in school, it's something people use every day to plan, create, and communicate.

Let's get started.

♪ Doodly-doodle, doodly-doodle ♪ Doodly-doodles and digits ♪ Area, symmetry, fractions too ♪ ♪ It's all here for you ♪ Have you ever looked up at an airplane and wondered how it safely carries people, luggage, and fuel high into the sky?

Pilots and aviation experts use math every single day to make sure their flights are safe and ready for take-off.

Before a plane ever leaves the ground, they calculate important information.

In this segment, we'll meet pilots and aviation students who use addition, measurement, fractions, and problem solving to prepare their aircraft and make important decisions.

Let's take-off and discover how math helps airplanes fly.

I am Ellie Harper.

I am a fourth-year Aviation Engineering student here at Ohio State University, on the professional pilot track.

My name is Brian Strzempkowski and I am an assistant professor of practice at The Ohio State University.

What does a typical day look like?

Ellie Harper: It's a little different every day.

Say, we are flying that day, I walk in and then fill out all my pre-flight data card, check weather, and then we'll go out to the plane in pre-flight and make sure all the nuts and bolts are in the plane and everything's operating correctly, and then we will go, out do a lesson, either maneuvers, landings, specialty landings.

So, training you are going to do small planes.

You are not training in big jet airliners.

The planes we fly here at Ohio State are the Cessna 172S model.

You can't take a lot of people, but it is really good for training, and its characteristics are really good for students.

Say, if it's a bad weather day like today, we'll do a ground lesson.

So that's where getting taught ground knowledge, which will later be translated for the check ride and for in the air.

So, I do like to say the plane is my classroom, but you are on the ground learning a lot more.

A lot of aviation and flying is learned on the ground.

How do you use math?

So, we use math every day.

As soon as you walk into the airport, you are filling out a pre-flight data card, doing all those calculations.

Brian Strzempkowski: So, we are looking at not only the weight of the aircraft when it's empty, but then we have to add in the weight of the passengers, the weight of the bags, the weight of the fuel... The manufacture of every plane issues all the limitations, all of their calculations before and then you have to interpolate those for each flight you are doing based on temperature, pressure, altitude, or any other weather conditions that are happening.

With reading the weather, there is a thing called a METAR and it gives your visibility, and sometimes, if that is below a mile, it will be issued in fractions, and you have to be able to compute that into your distance that you can see.

So, it could be like three-fourths of a mile, half of a mile, a fourth of a mile, like a day like today.

What data or numbers do you use daily?

A lot of our math problems, when we are planning these flights and getting ready, we are adding and subtracting large numbers, dividing, multiplying large numbers.

The 737 weighs over a 180,000 pounds.

There's much larger aircraft than that.

They can weigh 200,000, 300,000.

The largest aircraft out there can weigh a million pounds at take-off.

So just trying to get these planes up into the air with that kind of weight on them requires extremely large numbers.

So, in the aircraft dispatch course that is the key element of that entire class.

We spend an entire year just working on problem solving and it's everything from not only putting the gas and the people on how much I can take, but how do I route around weather.

If there is a large thunderstorm, how do I keep the plane safe by picking a different route to get around that weather?

If I do that, how much extra time does that add.

That extra time also requires extra gas.

So now there is all these add-on problems that I have to constantly think about as I make every decision.

Why is it important to be precise in your position?

When you are calculating your take-off and landing distances, it has to be within a certain amount of the runway.

Also with weight and balance, you can't just round with your weights.

You have to be under specific weight when you take-off in order to take-off.

So, if we were to just round our numbers and hope for the best if we are over our take-off weight, we might overrun the runway or do some structural damage to the aircraft.

So when you take-off, you'll line up center line with the runway, verify the number you are on, and then you will add full power slowly.

You reach your take-off speed.

For the planes we fly, it's 55 knots.

Once you hit that, you slowly start pulling back on the controls and then you lift off and pitch for your best climb air speed.

A training airplane at this airport can safely weigh no more than 2,550 pounds.

The airplane weighs 1,700 pounds when empty.

A student pilot weighs 160 pounds, and the instructor weighs 180 pounds.

They also load 210 pounds of fuel and bags onto the plane.

What is the total weight of the airplane?

Is the airplane safe for take-off?

[clock ticking] [bell ringing] Let's add up all the weights to find out.

First, the empty airplane weighs 1,700 pounds.

Next, we add the student pilot and instructor.

Together, they weigh 160 plus 180 pounds, which equals 340 pounds.

Now, we'll add the fuel and bags, which weigh 210 pounds.

So, let's add everything together.

1,700 plus 340 plus 210 equals 2,250 pounds.

The maximum safe take-off weight is 2,550 pounds.

Since 2,250 pounds is less than 2,550 pounds, the airplane is safe for take-off.

This is exactly how pilots use math to make sure their aircraft is safe and ready to fly.

Today, we learned that pilots use math to make important decisions before every flight, from calculating the total weight of the airplane, to measuring fuel, distance, and weather conditions.

Math helps pilots keep their aircraft safe and balanced.

Even simple skills like addition, multiplication, and measurement help pilots prepare for take-off and carry passengers safely to their destination.

The next time you see an airplane in the sky, remember math is helping it fly.

My name is Brian Strzempkowski.

I am a professor at Ohio State.

I am Ellie Harper and I am a pilot -and this is How It's Math.

-And this is How It's Math.

Have you ever watched a commercial on TV or online and wondered how it was made?

Woman: And action.

Behind every commercial is a team of creative professionals who carefully plan, film, and edit the video so it tells a story in just a few seconds.

But what many people don't realize is that math plays a big role in the process.

Video producers, directors, and editors use math to measure time, plan budgets, and make sure a commercial fits perfectly into a specific time slot, like exactly 30 seconds.

In this segment, we'll meet professionals who create commercials and learn how math helps them bring their ideas to life.

Let's go behind the scenes and discover how math is used in video production.

My name is Christa.

I am the Executive Producer and Head of Production at Space Junk Studio here in Columbus, Ohio.

An executive producer is somebody who helps facilitate bringing work to the company.

I help define it.

So, maybe that's building a contract or a game plan of some sort, so that we can all understand how we are going to accomplish the project that we are being asked to execute.

And then overall, I keep an eye on all productions going on in-house just so I can make sure that everything is running smoothly.

How do you use math?

So I use math every single day in my job.

I use math to create budgets.

So, what that means is we have to figure out how much money we are going to charge our client to execute the spot.

So what I will normally do is figure out what services do they need, how much do those services cost, and how much of that service do they need?

Do they need a couple days of that service, a few hours?

And so I have to figure out all of those different services and fees, add it all up, and then I figure out the cost that we are going to present to our client.

I also then take that contract, that bid that we are creating, and then I have to turn that into a calendar.

So understanding, for example, that I need two weeks of copywriting means that my calendar will then reflect that two-week time period where we are going to do that work and the client gets to view it and we get to have some back-and-forth and kind of work through it.

But yeah, every single day, it's really about money, using percentages, addition, multiplication, and then really turning that into a timeline.

Like, how does that translate from numbers all the way to like, how are we going to get this done and how much time will it take?

My name is Miranda Dumm.

I am a director.

So, a director is basically like the ringleader of the show.

So, the way that we kind of break things up is by pre-production, production, post-production.

So, pre-production are those very early calls that we would get with a client.

That's where they come to us with a creative brief hopefully, or at least an idea.

So we have to think about how can we make a creative work within their budget and also timeline, because sometimes we have to do things very quickly.

So pre-production is really kind of figuring out all the tools that you need to start.

So, a cool thing about Space Junk is that we not only do live action, but we do animation too.

So, production can look a little bit different from an animation versus a live action.

So, production could be a shoot, going on set, going on location, starting the animation process.

Post-production is basically you take all your footage that you shot from being on set, you get it into the computer, and then that is when it all comes to life.

So, this is when the edit team gets together.

They get their hands on stuff.

How do you use math?

I use math quite a bit actually.

People don't typically think that creative position uses a lot of math, but I use math all the time.

Video itself, how cameras work, tons of math involved in terms of angles and frame rate, time.

So, if you are working with, say 24 frames per second, which is how we measure time within video, that means that every second there are 24 still images of motion within that second.

So when you put it all together, it looks like one video.

A video production studio is planning a commercial.

The team needs 40 hours of copywriting to write the script and plan the message.

The copywriter charges $100 per hour.

How much will the copywriting cost for the commercial?

[clock ticking] Let's figure out the cost.

The copywriter charges $100 for each hour of work.

If the project takes 40 hours, we multiply 40 by 100, 40 times 100 equals 4,000.

So the total cost for the copywriting is $4,000.

This is one of the ways producers use math when planning a commercial.

They calculate the cost of every part of the project so they can stay within the client's budget.

How did you get to the position you are at today?

So, I was always the kid growing up constantly drawing.

So, I did go to college for art and animation and then that's when I also kind of learned more about film-making and working with cameras.

I knew that I wanted to grow and so I found a job with Space Junk, which was great because it was a creative studio full of super talented, awesome, creative people who taught me so many more things beyond what I even knew myself.

Do you have any advice for us?

My advice with math is to not be afraid of it.

I hear so many people who say they are bad at math and they are not.

I think they just think they are.

I definitely felt that way too growing up.

I always thought, Oh my goodness, I'm not that good at math.

Then here I am using it every single day.

Do your best to soak up everything you can.

Don't think you are bad at math.

You are probably good at it.

Today, we learned that making a commercial takes creativity, teamwork, and a lot of math.

Video professionals use math to plan budgets, schedule production, measure video length, and edit footage frame by frame.

Even though commercials may only last a few seconds, a lot of careful planning and problem solving goes into making them.

The next time you watch a commercial, remember math helped make it happen.

Math isn't just something you use in school, it's something creative professionals use every day.

I am Christa Cox, I am an executive producer.

My name is Miranda Dumm, I am a director, and this is How It's Math.

Have you ever been to a hair salon and noticed how busy it is.

Behind every haircut, color, and style is a lot of math at work.

Today on How It's Math, we are visiting a hair salon to see how stylists use math every single day.

Stylists use math to measure hair products, mix colors in the right ratios, schedule appointments, and calculate how long each service will take.

They also use math to manage prices, count tips, and track how much money the salon earns.

From timing a haircut to mixing hair dye, math helps stylists work efficiently and give clients the look that they love.

Let's see how math makes a great hair day possible.

I am Rebekah Keller and I am a hair stylist and salon owner.

Growing up, I always wanted to be an engineer, because I have always really loved science and math.

I grew up in a household full of hair dressers.

I was always playing, practicing in my mom's basement hair salon and I realized that I just really loved doing hair, and it became what I really wanted to do.

What does a typical day look like?

My typical day does change because I own the salon and I manage my staff, but I also still work behind the chair a couple days a week.

So, on my hair days, I try to get here early before my clients.

I want to set up my station so that I am prepared for the day.

I usually check my schedule, see who is coming in, check my formulas, make sure I have everything that I need to get started and greet my clients and start my day.

So, our days are pretty busy usually once we get started, but they go quickly and it is a lot of fun.

How do you use math?

Probably the most obvious would be when we are mixing and formulating our color, we have to really work in, like, with parts and fractions, but also, we use math in hair cutting a lot.

Hair cutting is very technical, so we use a lot of geometry and angles in creating shapes on a 3D shape, which is your head.

When we are cutting hair, we are usually talking in inches with our clients, but with mixing color, we are usually working in grams, because we can be a lot more exact with our measurements, with our color, because we are usually working in much smaller fractions or parts with that.

Money is obviously a very important part of running a business.

And with a salon, we have so many products that we have to purchase in order to do the job for our clients.

So, it's really important that we are comparing how much we are spending versus how much we are bringing in or selling to make sure that we have a profitable business.

A stylist is mixing hair dye for a client.

Sometimes it can seem like maybe we are just dumping a bunch of random things together, but depending on the product that we are using, it gets mixed with a developer, and sometimes we have to mix that with equal parts of developer or one to one and a half parts of developer or even like one to two parts of developer.

We use math to really get the correct balance of those colors in parts to make sure that we are creating the perfect color that we want.

So far, one-fourth of the mixture is a brown dye and two-fourths of the mixture is red dye.

How much more needs to be mixed in to make a whole mixture or four fourths?

[clock ticking] The answer is one-fourth.

How I solved this is I first added one-fourth to two-fourths to get three-fourths of what is currently in the mixture.

Then I subtracted four-fourths minus three-fourths to get our answer.

So, our answer is we would need one-fourth more.

Now you have seen how math is part of every step in a hair salon.

Whether it is measuring, timing, budgeting, or calculating prices, stylists rely on math to do their jobs well and keep their business running smoothly.

So next time you are in a hair salon, look around and you might spot math in places you never expected.

Do you have any advice for us?

Be open.

I think math is really fun and really exciting.

You don't realize in every part of your life how much you use math.

So, I know a lot of times when we were in school, we think like, why do I need to know this?

But math is fun.

So, I think you should just really embrace it and enjoy it.

I am Rebekah.

I am a hair stylist and a salon owner.

And this is How It Math.

Have you ever tried to check out a digital book from the library and seen that there is a wait.

Today, on How It Math, we are heading behind the scenes to find out how libraries use math and data to manage digital books and decide how much money to budget for them.

Even though digital books are online, libraries don't have unlimited access.

Each digital copy costs money and can usually be checked out by only one person at a time.

Librarians use data to track how many people are waiting, how often books are borrowed, and how much money they have to spend.

Using math, libraries create budgets to decide which digital books to buy, how many licenses they can afford, and how to make the best choice for their community.

Let's see how math helps libraries budget for digital books and online resources.

My name is Becky O'Neil.

I work at the Westerville Public Library, and my job title is Collection Development librarian.

That means I get to figure out which books we buy for the library, print books, e-books, even things like puzzles and pieces of art.

How do you use math?

I use math in a lot of different ways.

We track the books that go in and out, which we call are circulations, so we can see which ones have gone out the most or the least and we can also see how many people have put a book on hold, which means you go online and say, I want this book next.

Sometimes you are in line behind a bunch of people and if the line gets really big, then we try to get more copies of that book and we call that hold ratios, and we also have to work on our budget, which is how much money we have to spend on different kinds of things for the library and how much money is left.

What tools do you use when using math?

Becky O'Neil: The e-book platforms are nice because they will make graphs for you, a bar graph especially.

You can see some of the bars will tell you like this many of your users are children and this many are adults and this many are teens or this much of your collection is childrensbooks, adult books, teen books.

For me, I am a very visual person, so I love to see those different colors and quickly see which bar is tallest, and if I just look at pure numbers on the page, it is not as fast for my brain to understand what they are telling me.

Why is it important to be precise in your position?

It's important to be precise because you are using money and it is not just random money, it's money from all the people in the community, and at the same time, we also want to have things that people want.

So, to look precisely at what's checking out and what's getting more holds and what's not checking out anymore, it helps us have the exact kind of library collection that people will want and they will find the things that they are looking for when they come.

So, the library has an overall budget for everything, the building, the staff, and then the materials and so what I work with is a subset of that, where I have just this much for youth books and just this much for audio materials and just this much for e-books and just as much for e-audio books.

So, it is subdivided so we know how much we are spending in each category.

So a lot of times what I do for e-books is I have my amount for the year and I divide it by 12 so that I know each month I want to spend about this much, because we do try to spend the whole budget in the year.

For us, on the purchasing end, they make what's called metered access so they make an e-book only last for us for like 23 checkouts or one year since purchase.

So, when it reaches 23, no one else can check it out until we buy it again.

So, trying to estimate based on how many checkouts it's had in the past year and project that into the future.

What data or numbers do you use in this career?

So, we have a yearly budget.

So, this current year is $140,000.

For me, I have half of that.

So we divide it in half.

Half is for adult books and half is for children and teen books.

So, my piece of that is $70,000.

For a monthly budget then that would be the yearly budget divided by 12, and say, 70,000 divided by 12 is about 5,800, so that's what I try to spend per month and that is a good goal to not go over and also not go too far under.

What's something that might surprise students about your career?

I don't read books at work, so that generally surprises people about librarians.

In general, there is the idea of like, oh, don you get to read all day?

And we do, do reading a lot of like, book reviews and blogs and information from the field, but not the actual books that we are purchasing usually.

The library is looking at data about what type of media is being used and when it is checked out?

Look at this bar graph.

What type of media is checked out the most this month.

[clock ticking] [bell ringing] Audio books are checked out the most this month.

Now you have seen that digital libraries rely on more than just technology.

They rely on math.

By collecting data and creating budgets, libraries make smart decisions about digital books and online resources so they can serve as many readers as possible.

The math skills you are learning, adding, multiplying, estimating, and comparing numbers, are the same skills librarians use to manage money and plan for the future.

My name is Becky O'Neil.

I am a Collection Development librarian and this is How It Math.

Wow.

Look at all the ways math helps people plan, create, and communicate.

Today, we saw professionals using math to plan flights, manage production, mix products, and analyze data in libraries.

Whether it was working with decimals, large numbers, fractions, or graphs, math helped make important decisions and keep everything running smoothly.

The next time you watch a video, visit a Library, go to a salon, or even fly on a plane, remember math is helping make it all possible.

Thanks for exploring with us on How It Math.

I am Caroline and I can't wait to discover more real world math with you next time.

Male Narrator: Funding for this program is provided in part by... Female Narrator: We believe in getting outside, playing in the yard, growing things, and connecting with the earth.

We believe good can grow anywhere.

That's why we are committed to GroMoreGood, everywhere.

Male Narrator: And also by...