Math+&+Career++-+Interviews

=**__Mathematics Careers__**= One of the benefits of studying mathematics is the variety of career paths it provides. The study of mathematics is not only exciting, but important: mathematicians have an opportunity to make a lasting contribution to society by helping to solve problems in such diverse fields as medicine, management, economics, government, computer science, physics, psychology, engineering, and social science.

__Teaching__ The teaching of mathematics at the K-12 level is a high-demand field and the need is expected to grow in the future.

__Actuarial Science__ Actuarial science takes mathematics and statistics and applies them to finance and insurance. Actuarial science includes a number of interrelating disciplines, including probability and statistics, finance, and economics.

__Computer Science__ Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. Mathematicians, with their training in logical and precise thinking, are highly prized in this field.

__Operations Research__ Operations research is an interdisciplinary branch of mathematics which uses mathematical methods to arrive at optimal decisions to problems in maximizing or minimizing things like costs or profits. The eventual intention behind using Operations Research is to elicit a best possible solution to a problem mathematically, which improves or optimizes the performance of the system.

__Biomathematics__ Mathematical biology or biomathematics is an interdisciplinary field of study. It models natural and biological processes using mathematical techniques and tools. Results have been applied to areas such as cellular neurobiology, epidemic modelling, and population genetics.

__Cryptography__ Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. Cryptography is considered to be a branch of both mathematics and computer science. Not just for spies anymore, cryptography applications include the security of ATM cards and computer passwords.

__Finance__ Finance is a field that studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. Mathematicians can build models to help explain and predict the behavior of financial markets. Several schools offer Master's degrees in Financial Mathematics.

Grade 9 students have realized a series of interviews and would like to thank the professionals who took the time to discuss their job and describe how math is involved in their work. --- __**Mr. Thomas Pesquet, Astronaut ESA (European Space Agency)**__ To more about the French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, visit the ESA following page : http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMVFK0OWUF_astronauts_0.html

Students: We are in the 9th Grade at the International School of Paris (ISP). We are a group of three, Ben, Ian and Sunny. We enjoy math and this year we are in the advanced math class. ISP is the most centrally located all English speaking school in Paris. It uses the international Baccalaureate (IB) and the Middle Years Program (MYP) a program designed by the IB. We have been learning about graphing, solving quadratic equations, and simultaneous equations. We are very interested in your career as an astronaut. Please consider the following questions: S: How many years of training does it take to become an astronaut? S: Which space organization do you work for? S: Why did you decide to become an astronaut? S: How many languages do you speak? Do you have to speak Russian? S: What do the astronauts do in the last five days before launch? S: What it feels like to launch into space? S: How long do you stay in the space station for each mission? S: Does being an astronaut require certain math skills? Astronauts probably don't directly use much more than simple math when on a flight, important calculations are done by computers, but how is math used in your job in general? What kind of math is used? Do you have to be good in math? Is math useful to you in daily life? What is math to you?
 * Thomas Pesquet: First of all, hello Ben, Ian and Sunny. I’m very glad that you are interested in space, and I will try here to answer your questions as best as I can. I hope one day we have the opportunity to see each other in real, so that we can discuss all those topics a little bit more extensively. So here we go. **
 * TP: It takes quite a while! One can reasonably say that to be an astronaut, you train all your life, as training never really stops as long as you embrace that career. **
 * First of all, you have to carry out your studies as far as you can, as your academic background is very important to be selected as an astronaut: at least one master degree is required, and most of the astronauts also have a PhD or an additional education as professional pilots or test pilots. On top of that, and after your selection, you start an 18-month training period called Basic Training whose goal is to bring all the different astronauts with their different background to the same level of mastery in all space-related disciplines (e.g. Spacecraft dynamics and orbitography, electrical engineering, life sciences, fluid physics and so on). Basic training also deals with scuba diving (used to simulate extra vehicular activity in swimming pools wearing space suits), survival and first-aid training, and last but not least we have to learn Russian, to be able to cooperate with the Russian Space Agency that is an important partner in the ISS program. After those 18 months, you train more specifically on the hardware and vehicles used in space today, using models and simulators and this more practical phase is called advanced training and lasts 6 months. Only then can you be assigned to a mission to space, and so you need to train specifically for that mission depending on which vehicle you will use, which activities or scientific experiences you will carry out in space, etc. This ultimate phase lasts approximately 2 years. At last you are ready for your mission! But almost right after your mission is over, you start again to train for the next one! **
 * TP: I, together with all European Astronauts, work for the European Space Agency (ESA). ESA is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. It’s an international organisation with 18 Member States, and is a perfect example for international cooperation. In particular and alongside launchers (like Ariane V) or complex satellite systems (like Galileo), ESA is responsible for designing and implementing Europe’s human spaceflight program, and has a specific centre to do so: the European Astronaut Centre (EAC). EAC is located in Cologne, Germany, and is the home base of the European Astronaut Corps to which I belong. It is a centre of excellence for astronaut selection, training, medical support and surveillance, as well as support of astronauts and their families during preparation for and during flight. For International Partner astronauts and for the ground operations personnel, EAC is also the training centre for all European-built ISS hardware, including ESA's Columbus laboratory, and the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). **
 * TP: I decided to become an astronaut first of all because space is my passion. I’ve been interested in space for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been following the missions from NASA, from Russia, and especially from the European and French astronauts since I was old enough to read the press. This passion materialized in the opportunity I had to become an aeronautical engineer specialized in space vehicles, to reconcile my professional life and my dreams. Then I became a professional pilot as I loved to fly, and the combination of those two careers enabled me to apply for an astronaut selection. So one good part of my decision was linked to my childhood dream, and is a personal decision, almost an egoist one: I wanted to be an astronaut because I know that flying in space, being part of a cutting-edge international team or performing science and technology at a high level would make me happy. But I also applied for becoming an astronaut because I felt I had to give back to society as much as I could. I felt that I had received a lot from the educational system and from society in general giving me all the opportunities that I had to realize my dreams; and I wanted to take my turn in giving to other people. What ESA and its partners are doing up there in space has the sole purpose of making life better for people on earth, to solve present or future problems for the human race and our fellow Europeans citizens. So being part of the Astronaut Corps, I feel I can use everyday whatever abilities I have to explore for or to bring back useful scientific results to not only me, but all mankind. **
 * TP: I personally speak five languages, although obviously not all of them at the same level. English is mandatory in the space field, because as I was mentioning before, all the projects are carried out in an international framework, relying heavily on collaboration between international partners. French is the second language in ESA, mainly because France was the precursor space faring nation in Europe, and some of the very actual assets of Europe as regards spaceflight come from French origin or are still operated by the French space agency CNES, like Ariane and the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. We have indeed to be fluent in Russian, as Russia is a fully-fledged partner in the ISS program, and many modules of the ISS were designed, built and launched in Russia. What’s more, many European Astronauts use the Russian Soyouz Capsule to ferry back and forth to the International Space Station. For all those reasons, a big share of our training takes place in Russia, and therefore we have to demonstrate a good command of the Russian language. Good communication on the ground with Russian instructors, on the air with Russian ground controllers and in the ISS with Russian cosmonauts is critical for safety of the mission. As far as I’m concerned, I also speak Spanish for having lived and worked in Spain and in Mexico, and some German that I use in my everyday life here in Köln. **
 * TP: First of all I must say I never yet had the chance to experiment lift-off and the preceding preparation, as I had not yet flown into space: I still have a couple of years of training before being assigned to a mission! But from what I know, and experienced astronauts would tell you the same story, you spend the last days before launch isolated in quarantine, as you don’t want to bring germs and viruses up with you to the ISS. Therefore, you spend your time with the crew of the mission, eating a special diet, trying to adapt your body to the exigencies of the mission: for instance you can shift your biological clock to the mission time if a night launch is required, or sleep with your legs tilted up to prepare yourself for the body fluid shift of micro gravity. You also train up to the very last time on the procedures for launch, including emergency procedures: you want them to be very fresh in your mind should you have to react quickly during the launch. When the end of the quarantine period approaches and the time for launch approaches, you say goodbye to your family (who has to stay at a reasonable distance, again for microbial contamination reason), you attend a pre-launch press conference and then it’s time to prepare for the launch: dressing up in your flight suit, verifying its good operation, driving up to the launch pad and getting seated in your spacecraft, and going through all the launch procedures before you can finally blast off into space! **
 * TP: Launching into space is like riding the best roller coaster in the world: the acceleration of the rocket can reach up to four times the acceleration of gravity (the so-called g-force), hence your body feels four times as heavy as on earth (pilots refer to this as “g”, hence: the force can reach 4g). The noise level is high in the cockpit and vibrations all but prevent you from reading your instruments for the first two minutes. After a while, you will feel a thump as you jettison the solid rocket boosters if you fly on the American Space Shuttle, and after that the ride will get a lot smoother although you still feel a strong push on the back of the astronauts' seats from all the power in the three main engines of the Shuttle. Seven more minutes and you will have burned all the fuel in the central tank that the shuttle is still attached to: you now have to get rid of this now useless mass, and you finally can insert into orbit (your altitude is approximately 110 km). You will then experience weightlessness, and you would free float in the cockpit wouldn’t it be for the straps that maintain you in your seat. After a while it will be time to configure your spacecraft into the orbital configuration: remove your pressurized suit, stow or un-stow the necessary items, etc. After approximately two days of manoeuvring and phasing in low earth orbit, you will catch a glimpse through a porthole of your target: the ISS shining in the sunlight in the distance. It is at first very small and progressively gets bigger as you approach. The crew inside is readying for the docking manoeuvres, as are the flight controllers sitting at their console on the ground, in permanent radio contact with you and the ISS. The pilot of the Space Shuttle, or of the Russian Soyouz spacecraft, now bears the task of mating precisely and securely its craft with the ISS: a very demanding manoeuvre called docking, for which you have trained on ground. Once the two crafts are attached and secured, you can now open the hatch and be welcomed in the orbital outpost by your fellow international astronauts, whom you will either relieve or team with for achieving your scientific or exploratory objectives. **
 * TP: The current crew onboard the space station is a 6 person crew. In the station’s early days, only 3 persons could live on board permanently, as the life support systems couldn’t provide enough water and Oxygen for more people. Now that we are nearing the completion of such an enormous project, certainly one of the most ambitious engineering and scientific project of the twentieth century, the station has extended to its full capacity: the solar arrays are providing the full power input, and all the necessary systems are operational: water production, filtering and cleaning, oxygen production and air cleaning, CO2 removal, waste removal, etc. Let’s not forget that living in such a hostile environment as space requires a lot to be recycled from the astronauts’ daily life, and therefore a lot of the techniques we use in the ISS could eventually be applied on earth to save energy. Those 6 astronauts will make the station their home for 6 months, being relieved by half every three months by three new astronauts each time. 6 months in space is a long time, but there is a lot to do in the ISS: between maintaining the station and all its subsystems, continue its assembly (sometimes requiring Extra Vehicular Activities), and perform all the scientific experiments that your mission requires (as the ISS is a huge and invaluable orbiting laboratory with all the modern facilities), and if you include the two hours of daily exercise on a treadmill or a bike that are needed to maintain your physical health in weightlessness, you will hardly have time to speak to your family once in a while on the radio! You must not forget, though, to take some time for contemplating the earth from above, a sight that changed forever everyone who was ever lucky enough to experience it. Another highlight of your stay is the cultural interchange between all astronauts from different nationalities: Europeans, Canadians, Russians and Americans manage to work and live together for peaceful purposes, which is another one of space’s benefits. **
 * TP: If you allow me, I will answer here all the questions referring to maths. It goes without saying that maths, as the underlying science of all modern physics, chemistry and engineering, is an immensely powerful tool that enabled mankind to drastically evolve towards scientific progress. Firing a rocket requires a good understanding and modelling of the physical laws underlying its movement, which in turn goes through a good command of maths, and it’s the same for so many different aspects of our modern life: using a phone or a computer, driving your car, having X-rays, calculating interest rates or more broadly speaking understanding economy, and so on. But maths alone is just a theoretical tool, and you also have to understand the applications. All the other sciences (mechanics, electricity, biology and life sciences, economy: the list is endless) are the “users” of maths, and their needs are driving maths’ evolution. Quantum mechanics and relativity physics use very advanced maths for example, as well as genetics. So as a scientist or an engineer, maths is for you like a language you have to be fluent in, it is a prerequisite for understanding other sciences as English for instance is a prerequisite for understanding a lot of books or websites, and for having a constructive conversation with lots of people in the world. But farther than that, even if you are not the designer of a system but only the user (like an astronaut, or a pilot), then you must have a fair understanding of what’s going on, in order to use the system to the best of its possibilities, and you definitely have to go beyond the basic understanding, as sometimes you have to troubleshoot the system yourself, as no one else is available, contrary to when you need to have your phone or your car serviced. So to summarize, I would say the following: yes of course maths are important for me, and you definitely have to be good at maths to become an astronaut or a pilot (which is also true for lots of other professions). Maths are used in a simple form as the user of a system (simple calculations, simple geometry and trigonometry, “rules of thumb”), but also in a more complicated form for understanding a complex system like the guidance or propulsion of your spacecraft, how it works, its possibilities, its limitations. Last but not least, Maths should not be seen as an isolated science, but is extensively used through other disciplines (from life science to economics): it is found everywhere and almost every career requires some maths. So you have to give Maths your best shot, but you shouldn’t neglect other disciplines in the process, as most careers will require a good understanding of more than one discipline: I’m thinking particularly about languages. In our times when international collaboration is the key to achieving a number of goals, as it’s the case in human spaceflight, being fluent in many different foreign languages has become the standard. **

--- __**Mr. Russell E. Larsen, Architect**__

Hi, my name is Jaye Michelle Harris and I am in Grade 9 Extended Level maths. I am 14 years old and I have been living in Paris for a little more than a year. I am American. My class in doing a survey, asking different people who have different types of jobs to see how much math they have to use in what they do. I was wondering if you would like to be a part of this survey. I thank you in advance for answering my questions.

How often do you use math a day? RL: I use math every day in my workplace. As we design ‘spaces’, math is the tool we use to ‘measure’ the spaces we are creating. In your education in becoming an architect, was math very important in your studies? RL: I always enjoyed math. I was interested in Architecture and Physics when I was in High School. The training I received in mathematics (problem solving / critical thinking) helped me as much in my professional development as the actual learning of mathematical principals and theories. Do you think math is necessary? RL: Math is a critical tool for evaluation, communication, and creation in all parts of our daily lives. Do you like math? RL: I have always liked the logic and process of solving problems. I have always enjoyed math (partially because I always remember doing well in my Math Studies) and I have had many enjoyable math professors that have encouraged my learning. Is math the most important thing in your job? RL: Math, specifically, is probably not the most important tool for my job. However, process, which is a skill partially learned doing math, is perhaps the most important aspect of my daily work. Would your job be possible without math? RL: Not only can I not do my job without math, I need math in all parts of my daily life. Do you think math helps you in your job? RL: Math has made me a better thinker and therefore it has helped me to do my job more effectively. If wanted to be an architect; would I need a lot of math to become one? RL: Like many professions, Architecture has many interests and specialties. There are many creative aspects of design which do not require specific math training. There are many other more technical aspects which require very in depth studies – for example to understand structural calculations, wind loads, seismic properties, etc. Are you good at math? RL: I was very good at math in College. There are many theories and areas of math which I have not used and would need to refresh my studies to understand again. I do, however, use math every day, so I am very comfortable with my math skills today. What kind of math do you use? RL: I probably use the same kinds of basic math most people use every day, but in a different way. My emphasis professionally is in the area of design. I am solving (design) problems which involve a process of creating, testing, and iterating (going through the process over and over). Many of the ‘problems’ I need to solve involve ‘physical’ constraints (size, weight, space, volume, etc.). I use math to measure these properties and adjust my designs.

--- Students : Hello, we are in the 9th Grade at the International School of Paris (ISP). We are a group of three, Ben, Ian and Sunny. We enjoy math and this year we are in the advanced math class. ISP is the most centrally located all English speaking school in Paris. It uses the international Baccalaureate (IB) and the Middle Years Program (MYP) a program designed by the IB. We have been learning about graphing, solving quadratic equations, and simultaneous equations. We are very interested in your career as an astronaut. Please consider the following questions: How many years of training does it take to become an analyst? RJ : After having finished 5 years of mathematics at the university, I started right away working as a space mission analyst. I was learning on the job the qualifications which I did not have after university. Do you work for a space organization? Which one? RJ : I work for the European Space Agency (ESA) What kind of information do you analyze? RJ : I take as input the launch date and the kind of rocket we will use (this includes also the launch site, e.g. Kourou in French Guayana), the position of the planets, the propulsion details and then I try to find the best trajectory to my target (e.g. Mars, Venus, Mercury, moons of Jupiter). "Best" means a combination of safe, fast, and cheap (in terms of fuel consumption). Why did you decide to become an analyst? RJ : At school I loved maths because there is no discussion about a result. It's all logic. In the other subjects the teachers can tell you they don’t like your essay, but it was never clear to me, how you can "measure" this. I always wanted to be sure about what I was doing. How is math used in your job? RJ : I would say 20 % of my time I still need maths. I am now 46 years old and have to organize also my team and performing a lot of (boring) administration work. The best part is when I can calculate something. What kind of math is used? RJ : Since you are in 9th grade, you have not yet heard of differential equations and integrals. That’s what I do mostly. I try to explain very simply: My spacecraft is approaching Venus and gets pulled by the attraction of Venus, but also the Sun is pulling and the photons from the Sun also give a small push. All the forces change the position and the velocity of the spacecraft which I need to calculate. The next step is to calculate the control: When and how strong do I have to switch on my thrusters to control the trajectory. Mathematically this is called "optimisation". Do you have to be good in math? RJ : Yes. And you should like math. If you hate math, you better not become an analyst. But it is the job of your teacher to keep you interested in math, there are so many exciting exercises, for instance landing a rover on the Moon. You could develop small computer games for that, but you need to programme some mathematical equations for that. Is math useful to you in daily life? RJ : One simple example, I was shopping in Auchan and had my cart full of stuff. At the cashier they made a mistake, instead of 3.99 they put 39.99 and the total bill was 36 Euros too high. Of course I did not know the exact sum, but I realised immediately that there must be something wrong. After checking the bill I found the mistake. It is the same with your telephone bill, if you have some feeling for numbers, it is much more difficult to get cheated. What is math to you? RJ : It is a fantastic world of small logical problems. Like training your muscles when you go jogging or play football, you train your brain when you solve some math problem. But it is important to have fun. For me it is very comparable to doing sports. When you are forced to run it is no fun, but if it is a nice football match it is a lot of fun to run a after the ball and to exercise...
 * __Rüdiger Jehn, Mission Analysis Section, European Space Operations Centre __**
 * __Dr Christophe Baehr, Meteorologist (Météo-France / CNRS)__**

CB : Dear Sumika, thank you for your email. I'm trying to give you clear answers. If it's not, please ask me for additional explanations. SI : Hello. My name is Sumika ITO and I am in grade 9 at ISP, International School of Paris. It is near the Eiffel Tower. I am contacting you on the behalf of my Mathematics teacher, Ms Babulaud. I come from Japan. I have been living in Paris for 4 months with my family. CB : Great ! I know the "Maison de la culture du Japon" close to the Eiffel Tower. It's a beautiful place! SI : I have questions about your job as a meteorologist (weather forecaster). What did you study at University? CB : In fact I have had 2 school careers. One at the (French) national school for meteorology (ENM) and one at the University to learn Mathematics, fundamental and applied. At the ENM, I learned engineering techniques for weather modeling, weather forecast and climatology. All are based on computational fluid mechanics, data processing methods and communication technologies. At the University, I learned fundamental mathematics first (Licence and first year of Master) and the applied mathematics (2nd year of Master and PhD). In my applied courses I learned probability theory, mathematics for continuous media, fluid mechanics, computational math, etc. SI : How do you use math? CB : Mathematics are used, first to understand phenomena, but also to develop new tools or algorithms, and to verify the relevance of phenomenological theory. Then, to forecast the weather, we use calculations made by our supercomputer and draw weather chart to read its answer. This is the job of a forecaster. In short, mathematics are used as a tool to understand and to forecast the weather. SI : What does the weather forecast use for a numerical formula? CB : I am not sure of your exact question. The most famous equation used in our meteorological models is the "Navier-Stokes equation". There is also other main equations with the same shape. The Navier-Stokes equation is relating to the fluid velocity evolution. SI : What kind of equations do you use to calculate future forecast? CB : These equations are called partial differential equations (PDE). These equations give the spatial and time evolution of a parameter. SI : Are your predictions more based on math or estimating? CB : Both ! The numerical predictions are made using math, physics and a supercomputer. But these outputs require estimations made by a forecaster to adapt and to correct the forecast to the real-time situation. Indeed one of the major problem of the weather model is the knowledge of the real state of the atmosphere. And the forecast is very sensitive to this initial condition. So a little error in the estimation of the initial state bring a big error in the forecast. This is the well-known butterfly effect. SI : Do you use charts and graphs in your job? What do you use them for? CB : Me as a researcher I do not use weather charts to forecast, but I use these charts to understand the behavior of the atmosphere or to verify my calculations. In this context, a chart is a final output of numerical computations. For me it's a way to check the capability of my algorithms and the accuracy of my mathematical systems. S I : Thank you for taking the time to answer this interview; CB : You're welcome. If you need more information, with the agreement of your professor, please contact me. SI : Best regards,Sumika Ito CB : I'm looking forward to reading from you. Best regards Dr Christophe Baehr
 * __Mr. Pierre Darrigrand, Export Manager__**

Dear Mr. Darrigrand, Hello my name is Hitomi Hasegawa. I am in grade 9 at ISP(International school of Paris). I enjoy having math class in ISP. This year I am in the advance math class which is taught by our math teacher Ms Babulaud. In math class, we have been learning Pythagoras theorem, trigonometry, solving linear and quadratic equations, and simultaneous equations, definition of a function, sequences and series... I come from Japan and I have been living in Paris for 4 years. I know that you are making sales propositions and setting budgets, I am very interested in it so I would like to know more about your job. PD: Dear Hitomi, Thanks for your e-mail, you will find below my answers, I hope it will help you What did you study at University? PD: I studied in a business school in Paris called "Ecole Superieure du Commerce Extérieur" (in La Défense), it was in 4 years after the Baccalauréat. There were several subjects: accountancy, finance, culture and communication, different languages aimed for business (English, Spanish...), marketing, sales... and in fact in most of them you find math. Which company are you working for? PD: I am working for a small medium sized French company called Pierre Henry. We manufacture office products: metallic filing cabinets, tambour cupboards, stationery products in polypropylene, metal trunks... we have got a very large range of products. Sorry, but our company is not famous and has not any website but you can find our products in France in hypermarkets (Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc...), DIY stores (Castorama, Leroy Merlin...), mail orders (JPG - Staples group, JM Bruneau...), many other dealers. We export to many countries in Europe, some countries in Africa and a little bit in the Middle East. I am in charge of Southern Europe (Spain, Italy, Portugal) where I travel regularly, some eastern countries (Poland, Hungary, Russia...) where our customers have stores (I do not visit them, my contacts usually work in the international purchase department) and I also follow "key accounts" for the French market (Leclerc, Casino, Cora, Systeme U) => negotiations with the purchase managers. Why do you choose this field of work? PD: Thanks to my studies I was specialized in exports so I wanted to work in an international context. I have worked 1,5 year in Morocco, then I came back to France but I have been always working as an export manager: 7 years in insulation products, 2 years in ventilation products and now since 2008 in my current company. It allows me to travel and discover new people, new cultures, new ways of business... it is very interesting. How do you use math in your job? What type of math do you use? PD: I use basic math mostly calculations and percentage, thanks to Excel tables, the complicated calculations are very easy. Math help me : - to calculate our sales prices according to different discounts we allow, to calculate some logistic costs and marketing... - to decide the conditions we can allow to a customer considering his turnover, his potential, the products he wants to work, - to make forecast on the future sales - to analyze the sales per products, for each countries Do you have to be good in math? PD: As I use basic math there is no problem so you do not need to be very good. During my studies, I was average in math. It depends what you want to do later: if you are very good in math, you can study specialized math become an engineer which will give you many opportunities because after that it is quite easy to have a career into many activities and departments. But on the whole, Math give you a logic, a direct way of thinking, a good organization... all that is very important because when you will be working with other people (customers, suppliers, colleagues...), they will appreciate to understand you quickly because you are clear and that your presentations or your documents are well organized. Do you work a lot with percentages when you decide on a budget? If so, what for? How do you review next year's budget based on actual results? How do you use the budget? PD: What I call budget is the forecasts of turnover I think we are going to make on the markets I am in charge. Usually at the end ofr the year, my boss asks me to assess the sales for next year by customers for each country, what will be the best products.... You need to be ambitious but also realistic that is why it is important to have a good feedback from your customers, how the market behaves... So I use a lot of percentages to make these forecasts which are the results of the analisis of the sales of the previous years and also I take into account the actions we are going to organize to develop our activity. Percentages are everywhere in order to compare the sales of every product by months. I do a monthly analisis because some periods of the year are more "important" than others for some products. For example, a big period for us is the "back to School" (September). I have been working on "back to school 2010" since September 2009: visit the customers to present our products, the new concepts... they analize our prices, our conditions, the logistics, advantages and drawbacks vs our competitors... and then they tell us their selection: which of your products they have selected to be in their stores. After that I need to decide (negociate) with the customers special conditions and promotions: if some of our products are in their catalogue, it will be the opportunity to increase our sales but it has a cost (we need to pay our customer for that) and there is not space for every supplier on the catalogues. This participation has to represent an interesting amount for my customer but for me it must represent a small percentage of the total sales, so sometimes the negociation can be difficult. At the moment, I have already an idea of the turnover we will make next year because we have already received orders to be delivered in May, June, July... it helps me to adjust my forecasts and to decide on which products and which markets we need to make an action because the forecasts are lower than the year before or on the contrary which products have good results. My budget (sales forecasts for each countries) will help my boss to make a global budget in order to assess the total turnover of the company, the margin (rentability of the company), thus he will decide the investments he can make for production, the recruitments, the marketing expenses.... once again many figures, tables and charts to analize... and maths are under all that! Feel free to contact me if your need further information. I wish you all the best for your studies and a merry Christmas. Pierre DARRIGRAND Thank you for answering my questions. Hitomi
 * __Mr. Stéphane ALEXIS, captain, flight instructor and examinator for AIR FRANCE__**

AK : My name is Aoi Kiriyama and I’m in 9th grade. I came from Japan and I have lived in Paris for a year. I am contacting you on the behalf of my Mathematics teacher, Ms Babulaud. This is second year at ISP. ISP is an international school. There are many types of nationality in school, so all students use English in classes. SA : According to your Email, it will be a pleasure for me to answer your interview. My name is Stéphane ALEXIS. I am captain, flight instructor and examinator for AIR FRANCE, the French national carrier. AK : I have some questions about your work as a pilot below: What do you do during the flight? SA : We are very busy on ground, during takeoff and during approach and landing. In flight during cruise, we are more relaxed. We have to check fuel consumption. We have also to be careful to the radio in order to follow air traffic control flight clearance. Sometimes we have to check the cockpit radar in order to avoid thunderstorm cells. AK : How do you use math during the flight and what types of math do you use? SA : I use mental calculation. I use basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication) and trigonometry. AK : If someone wants to become a pilot, does he have to study math hard? SA : If someone wants to become a pilot, he has to study math and physical sciences in order to understand how an aircraft fly and how systems (electric, hydraulic, pressurization and etc....) work. AK : Is it important to calculate the estimated time of arrival with the speed of plane? SA : We have computers to calculate the estimated time of arrival with the speed of plane. But it is important to cross check it and calculate it in case of computers failure. AK : What do you do before the flight? SA : Before the flight we have to check meteorological conditions for departure, for cruise and at destination. We have also to check the notam (notice to airmen): the statement of ground facilities. According to the verifications, we calculate the fuel with weight and balance. At the end, we make a briefing with cabin crew. AK : I think that two pilots always operating the plane. Why are there two pilots in the plane? SA : There are two pilots in the plane and sometimes more for long range flights. There is one pilot in command who fly the aircraft. The pilot non in command navigates, checks the fuel and the systems. In case of failure, he has to read a check list to the pilot in command. AK : Thank you for taking the time to answer this interview; Best regards, Aoi Kiriyama