"Can you show us a practical way in which you use math at your job?" asked one of the high school students. Kent and I looked at each other.

"Oh man, that's a good question," I replied. Kent scratched his beard while I stared at the ceiling, hoping the answer was in the tiles.

"Ah!" I declared when an idea struck me. I turned to the whiteboard and started drawing two boxes. "Web developers typically have to calculate the width of columns of words on a web page. For example, let's say the entire page has to be 750 pixels." I stopped and faced the students. They looked like generic Halloween masks of confused kids, with expressionless eyes and raised eyebrows.

"Have you ever heard of a pixel?" I asked. They shook their heads in unison, like head bobbers on a carousel. "Okay, a pixel is how we measure things on a web page. See this screen?" I motioned towards a computer monitor with Yahoo.com on it. They nodded. "This screen is basically made up of tiny little squares called pixels. Each of these little pixels is arranged in a grid and can be a different color, so that an image can be drawn when certain ones are a certain color." I drew a grid on the whiteboard and filled in some of the squares, so a smiley face appeared. "Does that make sense?"

A flicker of light sparkled in their eyes; they smiled and nodded. "This same thing happens for TVs, video games, and cell phones," added Kent. The students continued nodding at the contemporary references.

"So say we have to make the entire width of our web page 750 pixels. Then we decide to make the left column 25% and the right column 75% of the entire page. That means we have to calculate 25% of 750 and 75% of 750."

"Ohhh…" muttered the students. The smile melted from their faces as they realized that they would have to start studying harder for their math classes.

"You guys sure have some good questions," I said.

"Yea, I wish there was a Junior Achievement program back when I was I high school," added Kent. "Then I would have felt better about doing my math homework."

The students laughed and Kent and I smiled. We had been talking to these students for the last half hour, telling them about our jobs, our company, and the working world in general. Most of the material seemed to put a heavy sheen on their eyes, but finally we were getting through to them.

I looked at one of the students. "What subjects do you like in school?"

She fidgeted with her hair and stared at the floor. "Math," she answered quietly. "I like math."

"Ah, good! Then calculating column widths on a web page will be easy for you!" She smiled and kept twisting her hair into knots. Her finger was going to have a hard time getting free of her hair later. "Are there other subjects you like in school?"

"Um, I like playing the flute," she replied.

"Great! That means you have a creative as well as a logical side. As a web developer, you often need to have a strong grasp of logic-based subjects, like math and calculus, because it helps you with computer programming. At the same time, you also need a good eye for design and art. In fact, did you know that just about every web developer in our company plays a musical instrument?"

"They do?" she asked as she raised her head and widened her eyes.

"Yup. Three of them are DJs. Five play guitar. One plays drums. Two play violin. I think four or five have been in the choir. And the others are either photographers, writers, or painters."

She nodded as a big grin grew on her face. Other similar expressions spread throughout the room like a spring shower during a dry spell. Their eyes lit as it dawned on them that they could have a wide range of interests and still get a good job. And maybe even a fun job.

"Do you have any other questions for us?" Kent asked.

One of the boys raised his hand. "If there was something else you wish you learned in high school, what would it be?"

"These really are good questions!" Kent looked at me.

I rubbed my chin. "For me, it would be finances and investing. I wish I had a stronger foundation in managing money and investing at a young age."

"Yes! Compound interest!" Kent exclaimed.

"Compound interest!" I repeated. "The power of compound interest is a fantastic thing kids, write that down."

"If I had started saving up when I was in high school, I would have so much money right now," Kent sighed.

"Yup. I actually calculated this out once. If you start putting money in a savings account right now," I said as I stared every student in the eye, "you'd have over a million dollars by the time you retired. The interest you earn each month slowly compounds and builds on top of itself over the years, finally giving you millions! That's a heck of a lot of money!"

Kent laughed. "If there's anything you remember from us today, remember compound interest!"

The students blinked incomprehensively. Some scratched their heads, others stared at their desks. The flicker of light in their eyes smothered under an overwhelming glossy glaze. Whatever grasp we had of their fragile young minds was now lost with this talk of the complicated, yet very important dammit, concept of compound interest. Maybe we should have stuck to computing pixels.

. . .

Can you tell me a practical way in which you use math at your job?