Every time we go to the doctor, the nurse takes a few key measurements: our blood pressure, weight, height (if we’re still in growing years), and temperature. Depending on our issue, they might run some blood work. They do this because our bodies God finely tuned our bodies to operate just right, and these numbers—as well as many others—can clue us in to if something is out of place.
Blood Pressure
Stop and marvel at your heart for just a moment. All without your thinking about it, it pumps blood at just the right pressure through your body, adjusting that pressure automatically based on your activity level. If it beats too high or low, your body stops functioning correctly. Ask someone who’s had that happen and they can tell you what a gift a working heart really is.
Height & Weight
Your height and weight can be used to calculate what we call a BMI (Body Mass Index). Simply divide your weight by your height to find yours. That simple ratio gives us a way to compare if we’re at a healthy weight…and to see if children are growing appropriately.
Temperature
It’s no fun when we run a fever, is it? God designed our bodies to operate within a certain range, and when our immune system has to raise the temperature higher to fight off an infection, we feel it. We don’t often stop to think, though, about how amazing it is that our bodies can control our temperature in the first place. Yet a functioning body temperature is a daily gift from God.
Blood Work
Doctors sometimes need to draw blood work. If you’ve ever looked at blood work results, you might have noticed that it’s filled with numbers of what was in the blood analyzed, as well as normal ranges for that value. If you’ve ever had anything show up abnormal on your blood work, you may know how something simple being off in our blood can cause major problems. For example, if our blood sugar is off as is the case in diabetes, we can experience major health issues.
Stop & Praise
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” Psalm 139:13-14 (ESV)
When we use math to measure the quantities and operations in our bodies, we see that we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made.” We’re finely tuned on so many levels, from blood pressure to temperature to sugar levels to hormones to oxygenation—the list could go on and on and on. Our amazing bodies should cause us to praise our great Creator!
At the same time, the reality that our bodies don’t always work right should remind us that we live in a fallen world—a world gone wrong because of sin. In God’s original creation, Adam and Eve’s bodies worked just right all the time. Sin changed that. Now we’re all in the process of dying, and our bodies often don’t stay perfectly tuned. Sin is serious, and we’ve all sinned. We desperately need the Savior, Jesus Christ; through faith in Him, we can look forward to a perfect world again with new bodies that do work perfectly.
Next time you think about math, remember that it helps us explore God’s creation—including our bodies. As it does, it points us to God’s amazing design—and reminds us of the seriousness of sin. Pause and praise the God who both knit you together and chose to become a human to save you from sin and bring you to Himself and a perfect world again.
March 14, or 3/14, was both Einstein’s birthday and is also known as Pi Day, as the irrational number Pi (π) starts 3.14.
There are a lot of different ways you can use the day to build a biblical worldview of math in your upper elementary (or students who’ve learned about decimals) through high school students.
Ideas for Pi Day
Make a circular pie and talk about how π is the ratio between the circumference (distance around the pie) and the diameter (the distance across), or π = C/d . (Note that this is just rearranging the formula for the circumference you may be more familiar with of C = πd to solve for π.) This ratio is one we can’t even calculate all the digits of! There are parts of God’s creation we can’t even fully describe. You could also explore more applications of π and discuss it further; see the ideas and links in this previous Pi Day post.
Ideas for Albert Einstein’s Birthday
Explore (or have your students explore and give you a report on) the life and work of Albert Einstein and talk about his view of God. Here are a few fascinating highlights from his life and work:
Einstein flunked some things in school[1] and actually dropped out[2] at one point. We are all gifted differently—fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) for a purpose.
Einstein is famous for his Theory of Relativity, which explores the speed of light and its relationship to time and space. We’re still studying and learning about something God simply spoke into existence (Genesis 1:3)!
Einstein also derived the relationship between energy, mass, and the speed of light, or E = mc2. Consistent relationships like this remind us that this universe is consistent, held together by a consistent God.
Some of Einstein’s work was used in developing the atomic bomb. As we learn more about God’s creation, we need to make sure we use that knowledge in ways that honor the Creator. An atomic bomb was used to stop a war…but also to kill many lives. This reminds us that we need to seek God and His Word for wisdom as we apply math.
Sadly, Einstein was not a Christian, although he acknowledged that there had to be a God.[3]
I’m not an atheist and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages.…The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God.[4]
Einstein realized that creation proclaims that there has to be a Creator, or at least, according to the quote below, something miraculous. He recognized an order throughout creation and acknowledged that it doesn’t make sense why men can develop theories that end up tying so beautifully with that order—something that makes perfect sense if the same God created both us and creation.
You find it surprising that I think of the comprehensibility of the world . . . as a miracle or an eternal mystery. But surely, a priori, one should expect the world to be chaotic, not to be grasped by thought in any way. One might (indeed one should) expect that the world evidence itself as lawful only so far as we grasp it in an orderly fashion. This would be a sort of order like the alphabetical order of words in a language. On the other hand, the kind of order created, for example, by Newton’s gravitational theory is a very different character. Even if the axioms of the theory are posited by man, the success of such a procedure supposes in the objective world a high degree of order which we are in no special way entitled to expect a priori. Therein lies the “miracle” which becomes more and more evident as our knowledge develops. . . . And here is the weak point of positivists and of professional atheists, who feel happy because they think that they have not only pre-empted the world of the divine, but also of the miraculous. Curiously, we have to be resigned to recognize the “miracle” without having any legitimate way of getting any further. I have to add the past point explicitly, lest you think that, weakened by age, I have fallen into the hands of priests.[5]
We know from Romans 1 that deep down, we all know there’s a God. Creation, as Einstein recognized, proclaims God’s existence.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:20-23 (ESV)
But while Einstein’s exact views varied some throughout his life,[6] rather than heading God’s revelation to us in the Bible,[7] Einstein made up a god he was comfortable with, essentially worshiping the creation (his own intellect) instead of the Creator. Einstein didn’t want a God who would hold him responsible. He recognized something miraculous about creation, just like Romans 1 says we all do, but decided to worship a god of his own shaping instead.
The God Spinoza revered is my God, too: I meet Him everyday in the harmonious laws which govern the universe. My religion is cosmic, and my God is too universal to concern himself with the intentions of every human being. I do not accept a religion of fear; My God will not hold me responsible for the actions that necessity imposes. My God speaks to me through laws.[8]
Einstein’s birthday provides a great opportunity to point out to your students how creation declares God’s praises. There is a God—and we need to acknowledge Him and recognize that we’ve all broken His holy Law and need a Savior, Jesus Christ. Otherwise, no matter how smart we may be, we’ve become foolish in what matters most.
Key Reminder
As you remember both Pi Day and Einstein’s birthday, remind your students to lift their eyes from God’s amazing Creation to the Creator of it all. Encourage them that creation’s very complexity/order and our ability to explore it scream out His existence.
Please share!
If you enjoyed these ideas, please share with others so they can too.
[1] Kaku, M.. “Albert Einstein.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Einstein and “Albert Einstein,” Star Child Team, https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/einstein.html
[2] “Albert Einstein,” History.com, May 16, 2019 update, https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/albert-einstein
[3] You can view some more quotes about his view of God here: https://libquotes.com/albert-einstein/quotes/god
[4] Kaku, M.. “Albert Einstein.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Einstein.
[5] Albert Einstein, Lettres À Maurice Solovine (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1956), pp. 114-115; quoted in Nickel, p. 210, quoted on http://www.christianciv.com/Atheists_Confess.htm.
[6] John Brooke, referenced in “Einstein Letters Show Views on the Bible and Christianity,” Answers in Genesis, May 17, 2008, https://answersingenesis.org/theistic-evolution/einstein-letters-show-views-on-bible-and-christianity/.
[7] “Einstein Letters Show Views on the Bible and Christianity,” Answers in Genesis, May 17, 2008, https://answersingenesis.org/theistic-evolution/einstein-letters-show-views-on-bible-and-christianity/.
[8] Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 89. Found on https://libquotes.com/albert-einstein/quote/lbs0n1m
With the Major League Baseball World Series well under way, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the math involved in baseball. We’ll also see how all of it reminds us to praise the Creator.
Basic Numbers
Some of math’s applications to baseball are both obvious and basic. How many pitches a pitcher has pitched (called the “pitch count”), the strike and ball counts, the scores (called number of “runs”), the number of innings, the number of players, the numbers on the players’ jerseys—all these and more are examples of basic counting and numbers in action. How many innings are left after the 3rd finishes (assuming the game is not tied at the end)? That can be found using subtraction; taking 9 (the total innings with no tie game) – 3 (the innings completed) leaves the answer of 6 left. Do that same math after the top of the 3rd instead (meaning only half an inning has completed), and you get 9 – 2 ½ = 6 ½. Notice the fractional amount.
Basic Geometry
Baseball also has lots of examples of basic geometry in action. The shapes of the bases (squares), home plate (an irregular pentagon), ball (sphere), and infield (square or diamond) are all basic shapes familiar to many students. The perimeter of the infield would let us know how far a runner runs when he hits a home run; the volume of the ball could be useful if we needed to find the density of the ball (which would require basic algebra—the formula is listed below, where m is the mass and V the volume.
Statistics
When watching a baseball game, lots of statistics appear on screen. These statistics are calculated using math!
For example, batting averages are the result of taking the total hits divided by the total at bats, or total hits ÷ total at bats. (Note that total at bats “does not include walks, hits by pitch, or sacrifices” https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-a-Batting-Average.) Notice this requires both counting up the total hits and total at bats, and then uses division!
Here’s a site that explains the math behind various other statistics used: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/standard-stats/earned-run-average. If you’re teaching elementary math, you might want to check it out and make up some problems for your child to use. For example, knowing that batting averages are found using the formula total hits ÷ total at bats, make up some numbers for total hits and total at bats. (Note that the total hits will typically be less than at bats…unless a player hits the ball every time!) Say a player hit the ball 5 times and had 25 at bats; a student can calculate then that his batting average is 5 divided by 25, or 0.2, by plugging 5 in for total hits and 25 for total at bats.
You might want to point out that whenever statistics are used, it’s important to ask questions about them, as they can easily be presented in a misleading way. While this isn’t really an issue in baseball (unless someone misunderstands the stat), baseball can be used to illustrate how statistics can be twisted to help students learn to discern through the bombardment of statistics we encounter in the news, advertisements, etc., where they ae often twisted.
For example, say it’s a player’s first time at bat ever in the major leagues. He hits the ball during that at bat. His batting average the next time he steps up to the plate is 1 (he’s had 1 hit and 1 at bat), which equals 1. If you just see a batting average of 1 you might think he’s an amazing player…but we don’t really know that yet. This illustrates a general rule in statistics that the more data you have to calculate an average off, a better reflection of reality is the average is. We need a lot more at bats than 1 to really know how good a player is based on their batting average. In a similar vein, batting averages can be calculated over a player’s lifetime, for a series, or for a game. The point is that it’s always important to understand how a stat is calculated and what it’s really saying.
Algebra and Calculus
We can use algebra in calculating perimeter, area, and volume (the formulas are often written algebraically). We can also use algebra to figure out different facts from various stats. For example, if we know the formula for a batting average and one of the other values in the formula, we can use algebra to find the other value. Say we know a batting average over 100 at bats is 0.2. That means this:
Since we typically use letters to stand for unknowns in algebra, let’s replace total hits with an x. We’ll also replace the with a fraction line, as that’s the typical way to show division in algebra.
Now, because of the faithful, consistent way God governs creation, we can multiply both sides by 100 to solve for , thereby seeing that this player must have had a total of 20 hits.
Algebra (and calculus too) can also help us explore the physics behind baseball. For example, the speed of a pitch is cited throughout a game. While that speed is measured using a radar gun (a device built by using math to both understand and then design around the consistent way God governs creation), you could explain to your student how we could use algebra to calculate the approximate time the ball was in the air given that speed.
We know from physics that distance = speed • time, or d = st. If we solve this equation for time (t) by dividing both sides by s, we get d/s = t. According to the MLB, the distance from the pitcher’s mound and home base is 60 ft 6 in (approximately 0.011458 mi). Let’s say a pitcher pitches a ball that goes 90 miles per hour (mi/hr). Approximately how long was the ball in the air before it crossed home plate? Let’s plug in 0.011458 mi for distance (d) and 90 for the speed (s).
Formula solved for time (t):
Plugging in the values and simplifying:
Converting that to seconds using the knowledge that there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour, we’d get approximately 0.45832 seconds for the time the ball was in the air, so not quite half a second. That’s not long!
While I won’t go into it in this post, there’s much more that we could use algebra and calculus to explore in baseball, including exploring the force the batter has to apply to the bat in different situations. Check out Chegg’s “Baseball and Calculus” if you’d like to explore calculus (plus really a lot of algebra too) and baseball further.
Pausing to Praise
Think about the fact that in less than half a second (see the Algebra and Calculus section above), a batter is able to process a pitch and decide if and how to swing.
When I was going through a concussion recovery, I remember reading an article in the Answers magazine about how our brain is designed to learn. God has wired us so that if we practice a skill over and over again, our brain will actually change in response, allowing batters to train their brains to respond to pitches. Pause for just one minute to ponder that—and praise the God that made your incredible brain.
“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139:14 (ESV)
Also think about all the math that is used in simply setting up a baseball field where the bases are the right distance from each other…and in analyzing a game (let alone a season). We tend to treat statistics as commonplace, but they’re really shouting out at us that we live in a consistent universe held together by a consistent God. After all, they’re found by using division and other math operations…which hold true because day after day, century after century, millennium after millennium, God holds creation together consistently.
Indeed, we need to take a moment to pause to praise—and to reflect on the fact that knowing our amazing Creator is the greatest goal we could ever run after. We achieve salvation from sin and a relationship with God by receiving “the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9 ESV), but the Christian life doesn’t end there. Like athletes chase after goals, we’re called to chase after living more and more like we will be one day in Heaven—Christ’s completely.
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13b-14 (ESV)
Baseball is one of countless examples of math in action students explore in the Principles series. If you’re looking for a curriculum that both shows math’s usefulness and points math to the Creator, be sure to check out the biblical math materials we’ve put together.
Since I’ve been working on planning my wedding, I thought it might be fun to share a glimpse at how math applies in event planning. It truly is a tool we can use in various situations God places us in!
Total Guest Count – One interesting aspect of event planning is figuring out how many people are coming…which involves addition in adding up all the friends and families being invited.
Budgets – Trying to plan an event on a budget involves adding up all the expenses and subtracting that from the total you have to spend to see how much you have left to spend (or how much over budget you’ve gone…which could be represented with negative numbers). For example, if you’ve spent $25 + $500 + $120, then you’ve spent a total of $645. If your budget is $1,000, you have $1,000 – $645, or $355 left to spend.
Total Cost of Items – Addition and multiplication are used extensively in figuring out how much you’re really spending on a specific aspect of the wedding. Take table centerpieces for example. Suppose your centerpiece consists of a $2 vase, a $1 candle, and a $1 a flower . It costs $2 + $1 + 1 = $4. If you have 25 tables to put centerpieces on, it will cost a total of $4 x 25, or $100. If you pay 5% (notice the percent!) sales tax on all of that, then the total cost will be $100 x 1.05 = $105.
As you teach math this week, remember to show your students why they’re learning the concepts they’re learning. Math is about much more than passing a test or solving meaningless problems—we want students to understand how to use this tool in their own life so they’ll be equipped for the various tasks God’s given them…and to do so while praising the great Creator whose faithfulness in holding all things together makes math possible in the first place.
Note: This is a continuation of a series of guest posts on Math, Waves, and the Creator by Dr. Adam F. Hannon. This particular one would be great to have middle school and high school students read in order to give them a glimpse into how math helps us shine light on God’s creation, pointing to the Creator. I hope you enjoy! – Katherine
“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Genesis 1:3 (KJV)
God spoke, and light came into being. We feel its warmth (very much so in the summer months!) and enjoy its illumination, yet math gives us a fresh glimpse into just how amazing all the light around us is.
As discussed in the previous “Wave, Math, and the Creator” blog post, light is a wave—or more specifically, two coupled waves (an electric and a magnetic wave) in one. We saw in the previous blog how we can use algebra and trigonometry to describe waves, including light waves.
Let’s continue exploring light with math—only this time, we’ll use basic math, along with just a touch of algebra (the part a pre-algebra student could still follow).
As we do so, we’ll discover amazing order God placed in the very light all around us.
Measuring the Properties of Light Waves
There are a lot of different aspects of light waves we could look at. For example, we could look at how fast a wave is traveling in a certain direction—or its velocity.
We can use a number to describe this velocity.
Figure 1.1 The velocity of a wave is how fast the wave is traveling in a certain direction. For example, if the wave above took 1 second to travel 1 centimeter toward the right, we would say its velocity was 1 centimeter per second, or 1 cm/sec.
Or we could look at how frequently one part of the wave repeats in a given amount of time, called the frequency.
Again, we can use a number to describe the frequency.
Figure 1.2: In the video, the two waves have the same wavelength but different frequencies.During the time it takes the top green wave to pass one full period through the dashed line, the bottom purple wave passes through twice, thus it has twice the frequency.
We can also look at the wavelength—at how long each of the repeated wave structures are.
Again, we can use a number to describe the wavelength!
Figure 1.3 The marked distance between the peak of each wave is the wavelength. Notice that the top wave has a greater wavelength than the bottom one.
Now, in real life, it’s not easy to measure the frequency of a light wave—it corresponds to a really short amount of time. But it is easier to measure the wavelength. And then—you guessed it!—we can use math to help us find the frequency. Let’s take a look at how.
Using Math to Find the Frequency
Because of the consistent way God governs all things, there is a consistent relationshipbetween the velocity, frequency, and wavelength of a wave:
velocity = frequency • wavelength
Since in math we tend to use letters instead of writing out the whole words (it saves time and makes it a lot easier to work with the equation!), we’ll use symbols to represent this same relationship (the v represents the velocity, the f the frequency, and the λ the wavelength):
v = f λ
Now that we know the relationship between the velocity, frequency, and wavelength [1], we can use math to help us figure out the frequency. In a light wave, the velocity is the speed of light, which, because of the consistent way God governs all things, is always constant 670,616,629 miles per hour (or roughly 3.00 x 1017nm/sec). Note: The “sec” stands for “second,” and the nm stands for nanometers or 1 billionth the length of a meter—it’s very small! Thus, we can write that amount for the velocity (which we represented with a v) in the equation, giving us this:
3.00 x 1017 nm/sec = f λ
And now if we know the wavelength, we can easily find the frequency!
Example: If the wavelength (λ) of a light wave is 650 nm, what is its frequency?
We know this relationship: 3.00 x 1017 nm/sec = f λ
Substituting in 650 nm for the wavelength (λ) gives us this: 3.00 x 1017 nm/sec = f(650 nm)
If we now divide both sides by 650 nm, we’ll find the frequency.
Note: Notice that we divided both sides by the same amount to simplify the answer—we’re able to do that because of the consistent way God governs creation.
The THz stands for Terahertz. Tera means a trillion. We just saw that a 650 nm light wave has a frequency of 462 Terahertz; in other words, it is repeating the wave-like pattern 462 trillion times per second! Can you imagine something happening a trillion times over and over again in a single second!?
Discovering the Colors of Light—and Invisible Light
One of the neat things we discover as we use math to explore light is that different wavelengths result in different colors.
While we are used to white light, we also encounter colored lights, such as the red light in a small laser pointer. Notice how the color varies as the wavelength varies.
Figure 1.4: Approximate wavelengths of different colored lights.[2]
Some light, though, is invisible. It turns out that there are more to light waves than just what we think of as “light”! There are kinds of light waves with smaller and larger wavelengths that we can consider as invisible light. These different invisible light waves along with visible light are all called electromagnetic waves and make up a whole spectrum as shown in the figure below.
Figure 1.5: Schematic of the electromagnetic spectrum. Going from left to right goes from longer wavelengths to shorter wavelengths.
Just think of the fact we can also only see a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum—what beauty must exist to God who can see in the entire spectrum!
We are literally “in the dark” to most of the light waves around us—we only know much about them because we can use tools and equipment to detect them.
Applying What We Learn About Light
Not only does math help us appreciate the amazing beauty God put in light, but math helps us apply what we learn to build technology.
For example, take CDs, DVDs, and “Blue-Ray” discs. Did you know that the CD/DVD/Blue-Ray player reads the data off these disks using light, and that each of them use light with different wavelengths (and thus different colors)[3]?
CDs – 780 nm wavelength (infrared)
DVDs – 650 nm wavelength (red)
Blue-ray – 405 nm wavelength (indigo…somebody named that wrong!)
Every time you use a CD/DVD/Blue-ray disc, you’re reaping the benefits of math in action.
Let There Be Light
That’s just a glimpse into how math reveals design and beauty in the very light around us—the light God created by the simple command, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3 KJV).
As you enjoy the bright summer light today, pause and reflect on the Creator’s power and might Who simply spoke light into existence.
He is the same Creator who shone into the darkness of our sin with the Light—Jesus Christ.
“In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” John 1:3-4, 12 (KJV)
[1] Equation from David J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 3rd ed. (USA: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999), p. 368. [2] The exact colors given for different lights varies by source, as the there are a range of hues within red, orange, etc., and the borders are hard to concretely define since what may be orange to one person might still be red to another (see this Live Physics page for one list of approximate ranges). The point is that different colors of light do have different wavelengths. These values came from those given in Griffiths, p. 377. The figure was adapted with those numbers from one by Gringer. [3] Values from Kumar, T. Ravi, and R. V. Krishnaiah. “Optical Disk with Blu-Ray Technologoy.” International Journal of Computer Engineering & Applications III, no. II/III (July-September 2013), p. 160. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1310/1310.1551.pdf.
Meet the Author
I’m a sinner saved by grace through Jesus Christ. I’m also a writer—I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a pen. I… Meet Katherine [Loop] Hannon.
View our complete Cookie Policy here for more information on cookies collected in order for this website to function and perform the requested services and our Privacy Policy for details on what information we collect, why, and how we safeguard (and never sell) your information.
We use Google Analytics to track website usage in order to improve our website and better serve you. You can accept or decline this tracking below.
Part 2 of 3
I’m a sinner saved by grace through Jesus Christ. I’m also a writer—I’ve been writing ever since I could hold a pen. I… 
