"Math is hard!"
Posted on 03/07/2006 10:12:59 AM PST by RBroadfoot
None, according to Richard Cohen of the Washington Post.
EXCERPT: I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo. ... failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it.
The L.A. school district now requires all students to pass a year of algebra ...
Here's the thing, Gabriela: You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it. ...
Gabriela, sooner or later someone's going to tell you that algebra teaches reasoning. This is a lie propagated by, among others, algebra teachers. Writing is the highest form of reasoning. This is a fact. Algebra is not. The proof of this, Gabriela, is all the people in my high school who were whizzes at math but did not know a thing about history and could not write a readable English sentence. ...
Algebra ruined many a day for me. Now it could ruin your life.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Good point. I love AK by the way. Visit there in the summers. Thinking of moving to Anchorage or Wasilla.
Not if you are doing a direct comparison which would be based on unit price.
dy/dx is quicker...
So you only have to figure each problem out one time, not over and over.
That's the entire point of algebra. Exactly what numerical values are in question is irrelevant. It is about mathematical principles. Now you can sit down today and figure out how many gallons of gas you bought and what the cost was and how many miles you got from that tank and figure out your miles per dollar by reckoning and scratching out a few numbers.
Or you can express the numbers as variables, figure out the relationship and come up with one formula that works every time you plug in the numbers.
It all depends on how many times you like to solve the same problem.
SD
I don't write so well sometimes when people really piss me off.
"I use it constantly in the construction trade. I also have to deal with the people that feel they don't need it. They do. They just don't think so."
And they'll be swinging hammers and pushing saws while others are running the crew. That's the difference.
Be careful, you're merely blaming the messenger.
LOL!
I was a math whiz and used it in my work. Algebra is the foundation of college mathematics, so it should be required of all college prep students. Even in the social sciences you need it for the statistics course. But there is little use for algebra in everyday life. You can just keep guessing at the answer until you get something that works. Of course, if you don't have any experience with algebra, you may not know for sure if it's the right answer, but you don't have to PASS algebra just to guess. Besides, you are supposed to "estimate" the answer before you solve an equation, as a check on your work. I suppose that the rationale for requiring it is that some students may not know they have college potential until their senior year, when it's too late. But they can take remedial classes as a freshman. My college roommate took remedial algebra and still became an engineer because he understood cars.
Not if you are doing a direct comparison which would be based on unit price.
As a nurse, use it all the time in drug calculations....
I see a lot of people agreeing that they never use algebra. Any functional person does all the time. If you go to the store and try to figure out how many of an item you can purchase with the cash in your pocket, you've just done a bit of algebra. I think those peeps who say they never use it just never bothered to learn what it is, never thought about it, are just making excuses, just admire the writer, are really liberals, OR are just full of poop.
Microbiology would be much more useful to make all students take and pass before graduation. They run into microbes every day.
Why is it idiotic? I guess I can admit I have a basic understanding of algebra in the most basic of terms but I cannot perform any sort of complexity without searching for the answer on the web or asking someone more gifted in the area.
Do you think you can pick up a guitar and play like Clapton? I dont think I could and I know I cant just sit down and learn advance mathematics.
Can you look at music and hear the music as you read it? Or are you an idiot? Can you view HTML source code and see what the page would look like in your head? Or are you an idiot?
I simply dont believe a person not exceeding in advanced math makes them an "idiot" just like I dont think the inability to read music makes one an idiot.
Guess I just didn't realize how much I've suffered over the years by depriving myself of algebra. (yeah it's sarcasm)
And you knew in high school exactly what you would be doing for the rest of your life? A person needs algrebra if they're ever going to attend university or college and study calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, statistics, discrete mathematics, or any of the other more advanced fields of mathematics, some of which are pre-requisites for many fields of study outside the arts. It may also be needed if one goes to trade school or community college and wants to study things like electronics, tool and die making, CNC machine programming, vetrinary technology, and so on.
I know you are trying to be funny but when I know that blacks are appoximately 12%of the US population but are at least two-thirds of the complete idiots and jackasses that appear on Maury,Jerry,etc,I find myself in agreement with the Farrakhan types who talk about the white media ganging up on them.
Of course,no one is putting a gun to the head of those black fools to MAKE them come on those shows so they have to accept much of the blame as well as the morons of all races who lap that garbage up.
Trig is used all the time, especially in construction. Try building a roof or a set of stairs without it. Try estimating the materials required without algebra. I would imagine people who sew use it quite a bit too.
Calculus is rightfully the gateway math into college.
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