The Importance of Quantitative Reasoning:
QR in academic fields, in professions, and in everyday life
Excerpts from Mathematics and Democracy

Mathematics and Democracy: The Case For Quantitative Literacy, prepared by the National Council on Education and the Disciplines (2001), makes a strong case for the universality of quantitative reasoning. The following are excerpts from this book. If you are interested in reading more, view the text on-line at the Mathematics Association of America's website on quantitative reasoning. Academic fields such as physics, economics, and engineering have always required a strong preparation in mathematics. Increasingly, however, other academic disciplines require that students have significant quantitative preparation. For example: Biology requires computer mathematics (for mapping genomes), statistics (for assessing laboratory experiments), probability (for studying heredity), and calculus (for determining rates of change). Medicine requires subtle understanding of statistics (to assess clinical trials), of chance (to compare risks), and of calculus (to understand the body's electrical, biochemical, and cardiovascular systems). The social sciences rely increasingly on statistical analysis of data from surveys and censuses or from historical or archeological records. Advances in scientific understanding of the brain have transformed psychology into a biological science requiring broad understanding of statistics, computer science, and other aspects of quantitative literacy. The stunning impact of computer graphics in the visual arts (film, photography, sculpture) has made parts of mathematics, especially calculus, geometry, and computer algorithms, very important in a field that formerly was relatively unquantitative. Interpretation of historical events increasingly depends on analysis of evidence provided either by numerical data (e.g., government statistics, economic indicators) or through verification and dating of artifacts. The study of language has been influenced by quantitative and logical methods, especially in linguistics, concordances, and the new field of computer translation.

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