Lesson 2 — Activity 3:

Workplace Addition and Subtraction Practice

You will use math at any place that you work — whether you work as a babysitter, a cook, a seamstress, a server, a carpenter, a welder, or a typist. All these jobs require that you use math. Every day, you use addition and subtraction to find out how long something will take to cook, how many kilometres it is to the store, how many pieces of cake to cut, etc.

The math you use is everywhere!

Here are some examples of how math is used at work.

Career	Math Used at Work	Example
Autobody Mechanic	subtraction	37 rivets – 23 rivets = 14 rivets remaining
Daycare Worker	addition	35 apples + 27 bananas + 12 oranges = 74 pieces of fruit
Greenhouse Worker	subtraction	785 spider plants – 672 plants used for display = 113 plants remaining to be sold
Office Clerk	addition	17 envelopes typed + 8 letters + 9 business cards + 16 e-mails = 50 pieces of work completed
Welder	subtraction	235 feet of iron rod – 67 feet used in a project = 168 feet of rod available for another project

In the assignment on the next page, you will give three examples of your own to show how math is used in different careers.