10 Ways Maths Helps With Your Holiday
Initial Budgeting
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Before you book your holiday, you will need to decide on a reasonable budget, and you may also want to save up over several months to pay for the holiday as well.
For example, you might decide on a £1,200 holiday budget, which can be achieved by saving £100 per month. Maths helps you know whether you can afford £100 per month and whether a £1200 holiday budget is enough.
Booking
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Now that you have a budget, you can start to see which holidays you can afford. Maths is important to help you calculate the true cost of a holiday, as there can be many different factors involved.
Typical holiday costs include:
• Travel
• Accommodation
• Food and Drink
• Activities and Entertainment
• Charges, Fees and Insurance
Many of these costs will be estimated, so it is wise to leave some contingency in your budget in case any of these costs end up over budget.
Packing Luggage
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Regardless of what type of holiday you are going on, it makes sense to pack luggage into the fewest bags possible to save on space and costs.
Maths helps you calculate how many items you need (rather than guessing, and packing too many, or too few).
Important Holiday T Shirt Calculation:
N = Number of Nights
W= Number of times you will use a washing machine on holiday
D = How many days you wear each T shirt for
For example, if you are going on holiday for 14 nights and plan to use a washing machine once, and usually wear a T shirt for 3 days then the calculation is as follows:
You should round your answer up and take 3 T Shirts. Now that’s a lightly packed bag!
Once you have assembled the minimum number of items you need for your trip, you can also use maths to pack your suitcases in an efficient way. Maths gives you transferrable skills such as increased levels of spatial awareness which help you pack efficiently, and problem-solving skills to aid packing larger or more unusually shaped items into the suitcase first. However, there are also packing algorithms which can be used to take your packing to the next level - for example Bin Packing Algorithms.
Meal Planning
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Where holidays are self-catered, meal planning is an important task. If you plan to eat three meals a day, then for a family of four that is 7 x 3 x 4 = 84 portions to get right!
Cereal example:
How many boxes of cornflakes should you buy? A recommended serving of cornflakes is 30g per person. 30g x 4 people x 7 days = 840g in a week. This could easily be an unrealistic estimation depending on the breakfast habits of your family, but it will give you a good place to start from. You could consider weighing the amount you eat at home, or even better noting down how many boxes you buy across a month. Maths will help you keep within budget, and with buying the right amount of food.
Time Tables
Picture Credit: BBC Bitesize – Interpreting timetables
Travel is a key component of any successful holiday. If you are travelling by bus, train, coach or ferry then you might need to use your maths skills to understand the timetable and get to your destination.
At home, we have often rejected timetables in favour of apps, whereas it is surprising how often timetables crop up on holiday.
Here is a timetable for sightseeing on the River Thames. If you want to travel from Tower Bridge to Greenwich, what time boat should you take and when will you arrive in Greenwich? How long will your trip be?
Distances
If you are driving, then you will have to make calculations involving distances. On a long trip you might want to calculate how much fuel you will need and what the cost of this will be. For this, you should find out the average Fuel Consumption of your car under different driving conditions.
If you are driving an electric car then it is important to estimate the distance at which you’ll require a charging point as you don’t want to get caught out, especially if you are in a remote or unfamiliar area.
When renewing your insurance, you will need to provide an estimate of your total annual mileage, including factoring in holidays that might involve additional miles to what you might usually drive.
If you’re lucky enough to be planning a road trip with multiple stages, then you’ll also be calculating the total trip distance.
Currency Conversion
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If you are heading abroad this summer, then you will need to use maths to convert between different currencies. It can be particularly useful to make quick mental calculations when you are out shopping to give you a sense of what you are spending.
You will also use maths to decide on how to convert your money in the first place. According to Money Saving Expert Website “The difference between paying for stuff overseas the cheapest way and the most expensive way can be as much as £100 per €1,000 that you spend.”
Quick Practice: If a family meal costs 100 Euros and the exchange rate is 1.138 then how much does this meal cost in British Pounds?
Going on Walks
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Hiking is one of the best low-cost holiday activities. Speed Distance Time calculations can help plan a realistic and achievable walk based on the terrain, weather and fitness of the walkers. Maths can help you read the scale on a map and use a compass to take a bearing. Find out more about how maths can help you navigate safely in the mountains.
Carbon Footprint and Environmental Impact
Photo
Credit: Photo by Margot RICHARD on Unsplash
More people are conscious of their environmental impact while on holiday. Maths can help calculate the carbon footprint of different travel choices, showing how to make your holiday greener and more planet friendly.
Staycations
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If you are planning on taking a Staycation, then the good news is that maths can help you with this too! Planning daytrips, or a full staycation requires many similar skills to planning a holiday. Often some of the best fun can be had on our own doorsteps at a local park or free city museum.
Whether you are at home or on holiday, have a lovely summer, and you could even keep a note of the different maths skills you use.
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