Mathematics is a good subject that is beautiful and educational because for learning to think, mathematics is a kind of very powerful language. From a young age, children are familiar with mathematics. Mathematics is not just numbers, symbols, not just memorization, but meaningful mathematics.

In everyday life, people have to understand mathematics such as calculating, interpreting, etc. People have been introduced to work and further studies since school. One can also become a mathematician. This was conveyed by Mrs. Annie Makkink from the Netherlands at a public lecture for Mathematics Education Department students, on Monday, 4/3 at FMIPA UNY.

Annie gave the example of someone who sells pots at the market. There is a lot of mathematical meaning in it. Starting from a price of IDR 10,000 / 3 pieces, or you can calculate the number of pots sold by grouping them, etc.

A mathematician, especially from a Western country, who doesn't know the prices in Indonesia, rarely goes out of campus, has never been to the market, seriously, if asked about the price of a pot that is written as Rp. 10,000,- / 3 pieces, then he has a calculation of Rp. 10,000,- divided by 3 and the result is 3333.333. But on the market, one pot can be priced at IDR 3,500 or IDR 4,500. This indicates that mathematical calculations and mathematics in everyday life are indeed different.

"For someone who owns a gold shop, the owner does not need to memorize weight measurements such as 1 kilogram, how many decagrams, 1 centigram, how many kilograms. This is because gold shops rarely use kilograms, but mostly use grams", she explained.

Annie gave another example, namely the meaning of the number on a hotel door key chain which is numbered 1012. This number does not necessarily indicate the number of rooms in the hotel. But this number means floor 10, room 12. Likewise other numbers such as numbers on vehicle number plates, cellphone numbers, etc. (witono)