Karya Sigma, Application of Mathematics for Solving Problem

By Neli Syahida

Editor Neli Syahida

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - In daily life, human beings can't be separated from the problem. More growing human population, more problem will appear, such as litter and parking lot. Through the Karya Sigma (KARMA), Mathematics students 2013 tried to solve problems in daily life by applying mathematics. This exhibition was held on Thursday - Friday (25-26/09/14), located in first Floor Central Library.

By bringing the vision of "Inspiration of Mathematical Movement", this event is one of the major task given by Mathematics Students' Association (Himatika ITB) in the process of recruiting new members. KARMA aimed to introduce mathematics deeply to the community by providing an overview of problem solving using mathematical methods. There is general mindset in community that mathematics is just used to solve simple problems, like buy and sell calculation or measurements. In fact, mathematics can be used to solve more complex problems. Some of problems in ITB issued by KARMA is a waste problem, parking lot, and lighting.

In solving problems, the committee of KARMA still using simple tools. For example, minimizing the amount of waste in campus environment was performed by comparing garbage's volume and garbage can's volume. Then, the resut is the ideal amounts of garbage can which put in the ideal place. In observation process, they divided Ganesha street to eight parts, each part has a size 8 m x 50 m. Moreover, for optimizing  parking lot at the ITB, they observed how the optimal way of placing motorcycle, in assuming the area is rectangle. Then, they calculated the effective capacity of the land by using several methods.

In the third issue, the uneven distribution of lamps in campus make people uncomfortable. It was caused by unprecise placement and the wrong type of light type. The solution is solved by calculating the distance between the lamp depends on the light type and the mast's height. Things required in solving this problem are of luminous flux, illumination or lux, and the light efficiency. From the calculation, it was found that the optimal distance between the lights is 30 meters. Problems solving above is a small part of the application of mathematics in daily life. "By helding KARMA, we hope that we can expand the knowledge about the application of mathematics, especially in solving daily problems," Aushaf Abyan (Mathematics 2013) as the chairman of KARMA said.