What are some Careers for an innate Mathematic Genius?

Question

My son is a senior in High School and Mathematics come so natural to him. He says the answers to any mathematical question just come to his mind. He doesn't have to work the problems on paper....he just knows. He excelled in Physics, Biology and other Sciences too. He's extremely athletically coordinated too and is active in Wrestling, Volleyball and now Football. I hate to see him waste a God-given gift because he doesn't have real guidance. He needs a mentor to truly see where his gift can take him. Can't find that in High School and unfortunately for him I'm not sure how to help him either. Any ideas?

Answer 1

You are very lucky to have an exceptional child, and you are smart enough to know that you need help with him. Start with the school counselor. It is their job to help the children. Ask for their advice. You also might want to talk with Sylvain; they handle both children that need help and children that are exceptional.

WATCH THE TV SHOW NUMBERS, Friday on CBS. The math prodigy uses his wide range of math skills and knowledge to help the FBI. He is a pure math professor, and works on solving mathematical theorems. But, he finds so many ways to apply those math theorems. He consulted on the project to determine which containers should be checked in the receiving shipping ports for US Customs. He has used math theories to calculate where some bodies thrown in the water would have started. He proved that the Coast Guard was wrong and that the channels had changed, and the water flow was different. He used reports of various sightings of a criminal to determine his location. He found out that there were too many false reports, but the spots where he committed crimes and where he did so in the past sharply narrowed the police search area. He consults with the FBI on every episode and introduces advanced math to help them. The writers have to make all this make sense and based on actual math theorems. His best friend is an Astronomer who helps him and often consults with him on his own projects.

Pick a major college in your area and over the Winter Break go there for a few days. You can make it a Father-Son outing. The college professors and the department deans live there so there are always some around. Contact the Dean of Admissions at the University before you go there and ask for their help. If your son is a good as he sounds then they will fall all over themselves to help him and encourage them to come to their school. Colleges are money making institutions, and the largest sources of funds are from the students and alumni. If a student drops out of school they stop paying tuition, if they don’t graduate and get a well paying job then they can’t be alumni willing to contribute to their old college. It is the college’s best interest to help your son do well in their school. Just talking with the college doesn’t cost more than your hotel and meals (and the trip to get there). You don’t have to sign any papers or commit to anything, and your son can still chose other colleges.

But, the best resource you have is closer to home; it’s in his teachers. Have him ask a math or science teacher if he can stay after school and talk with him about what area he should continue in.

Accounting is the first profession that comes to mind, and probably one that he will soon tire of. Accountants don’t use old counting methods, they use calculators and spreadsheets; I think that this field would be a waste of his gift.

Code writing and breaking is pure math.

Any form of engineering requires advanced calculus and physics. I would avoid petroleum engineering, but electronic engineering is a growing field that could lead to a specialization in computers. Both require math as a foundation. The computer can do the basic math but figuring out the algorithm is the hard part. Look at all the time the creators of the video game Doom invested in their program. When some code was released early it was a major deal. Your son’s sense of numbers and math will help here.

Physicists work on the fundamental questions of the Universe. I have seen the formulas Einstein used to write the General and Special theories of
Relativity and despite taking college level calculus I can’t understand them, they are just beyond my level of understanding. You son could reach that level.

Rocket Scientists use the same calculations, as Newton first developed to plan their missions. Taking off from the Earth is very fuel intensive, which is a very large part of the mission cost. To get a satellite into a high orbit is difficult, your son could intuitively see the math and detect any errors that other people would struggle at just to understand. A recent satellite was launched to orbit and watch the sun. The mission planners had to account for the orbit of the moon, so they could use its attraction to push the satellite into its orbit. I wouldn’t recommend a job with NASA. My father was a contractor with Boeing and felt like he had very poor job insurance. But, with all the new space companies cropping up the field is going to only grow. JPL lost a Mars probe a few years ago because they worked in meters while the NASA contractors worked in feet. Your son could make those conversions in his head.

I studied to be an Architect, and after Trig, Precalculus, and Calculus I had to study Dynamics and Stress. Using Newton’s basic formulas I learned to figure out and graph the forces going on in a column or beam. Not just the compression and tension, but also the shear, the torsion (twisting), and the center of gravity. Then as an Architect I would have to put those beams and columns together to build a structure. Not just the concrete, but also the steel inside it and how strong the connectors had to be. As a contractor I would need to calculate how to support those structures as they are put up. How thick would the wooden forms have to be, how many supports, what grade of concrete, and what type would I need to pour to meet the specifications. Concrete takes 28 days to cure properly so you also have to figure out how to not stop work on the job as you wait for the concrete to get hard enough to support weight (not just the weight of the workers on it , but the rest of the building). The Architect tells you what to build, but not HOW. As an estimator I would have to know how to put the building together, including the material needed to construct it and then figure out much that would all call. A minor error could reflect itself into thousands of dollars, and then what would happen if because of my estimate we didn’t have enough concrete to finish the pour that day, if we didn’t have enough men, or enough iron…

I couldn’t begin to put together some of today’s complex buildings. The Hadden Planetarium uses glass as part of its supports. That glass has to be strong enough to withstand a hurricane and to continue to help support the building. A bridge is easy to build, but the greatest engineering disaster in the 20th century was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The bridge engineers didn’t allow for the stress of the wind, it was known as the bouncy bridge. Finally the wind tore the bridge apart. At the time of the disaster the bridge was going up and down by 20’-30’. Building a major structure today has to take in account for the wind, earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornados. All of this has to be done with math.

In short based on his skill in math you can’t determine the best career path for him. He needs to have more of an interest in the various specialties. Math is the foundation for ANY technical or scientific field, even the medical field (robots instruments and machines). Or your son could go into pure mathematics.

What does he like, what is his all-time favorite course? I discovered my bliss in High School, drafting. I did drafting work for FUN. All lines are straight 90-degree lines, to figure out those I needed advanced math. Look at an old-fashioned coke bottle. It is a curvy and wavy form. How do you figure out how much a bottle can hold? You can estimate it and try to make models, or you can use calculus and know exactly how much it can hold.

He needs exposure to various fields and a understanding of how his gifts can be applied to it. Record the show Numbers and have him watch it. It will give him just a hint of all the possibilities. However, you can onl y provide options; he has to find his own bliss.

Answer 2

Doctors can make about 250,000 per year. A brain or heart surgeon would be a good job.

If he would rather sit behind a computer all day, then he could be a computer engineer or computer programmer.

Also, becoming a stock broker can make him a lot of money. A degree in finance would help him here.

He could be a professor of a well respected college.

Or he could be a biology scientist studying cures for cancer.

Most of all, he should do what he enjoys the most.

Hope this helped.

Answer 3

A math college professor

Answer 4

let him find his own way. if he's as smart as you think he is then he will turn out just fine no matter what he decides to do. he's, what, 17 or so? he doesn't need to have anything figured out. nothing will go to waste.

Answer 5

Engineering seems like a good fit, that or chemistry is also a good one.

Answer 6

I suggest the U.S. government. They are always looking for FBI and CIA agents.