# what knid of math do you have to kow to be a pilot



## castle123 (10 Sep 2004)

i am knida god at math and i was wondering what kind of math is used the most and how much i have to be good at?

         regards: matthew   

(Edited by M. O'Leary to reduce "smilies" by 99%, in order to protect site bandwidth. PM sent to member.)


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## Inch (10 Sep 2004)

Mental math. You'll get a ton of formulas to memorize, then you have to apply them. Like windspeed/miles per min = max drift, so say 15kt wind divided by 3 miles a min (180kts) = 5 degrees max drift. You always round off all calculations since they're just ballpark numbers anyway, but you need to come up with that number fairly quickly since most of the time you're moving at 2+ miles per min and if you've only got a mile to go, you guessed it, you've got 30 sec to figure out the proper number.

To practice this kind of math, you simply need to practice adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers over and over again. So avoid a calculator for the simple math and do it in your head, that's the only way you'll get good at it. Another trick I use that was taught to me by my dad and they didn't teach in school is to break numbers down to make the math easier. Say 13x13, in itself most people can't come up with the answer that quick since in school you usually only memorize up to 12 in the multiplication tables. Just break the number down into more manageable numbers or numbers you're more familiar with, I use 10 since it's super easy to multiply stuff by 10, so,  10x13 = 130 and 3x13 = 39 so the answer is 169. See what I mean? 

You'll also need some knowledge about vectors and forces so an algebra and geometry class would help and of course physics is very important too.

Hope that helps.

Cheers


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