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 ...
He can do subtraction.
I prefer Cow-Pi!
Though not an algebraic mistake, it would be a [19]67 [Delmont] Oldsmobile...
Just a few examples of genuine algebra that I've used in recent years (and I'm a very slow learner at math type concepts).
-- I have to calculate how many gallons of paint I'll use per week in an industry setting, based on varying units of product to be painted. I also need to calculate how many hours a job will take using the same data. If I couldn't reliably do this (and many people can't), then someone else would be the supervisor and he/she would be getting paid supervisor's wages instead of me.
-- I formulate my own recipes for brewing beer and I often scale quantities up or down, or convert from one unit measurement to another. Anyone who cooks creatively from recipes needs algebra for this reason.
-- As a part time musician who needs to be frugal with band money, I've built my instrument and PA speaker cabinets by hand and done the wiring myself. Knowing the importance of matching components (an electrical engineer warned me years ago), I learned the basics of wiring from books and I algebraically solve the additive inverse law of speakers wired in parallel to run wiring.
I watched a friend of mine in another band I was hanging out with destroy a new $500 amplifier after he rewired his multiple speaker cabinets into a new configuration and decided he didn't need to go through the trouble of doing any algebra. He told me I shouldn't "patronize" him by repeatedly telling him I thought his speaker resistance was obviously too low (I guessed about 1.7 ohms). It took about 40 minutes of playing for his amp to catch on fire, but about a week's wages to replace it.
My parents insisted upon my taking and learning as much math as I could get through in high school, as difficult as it was for me, and I managed to eventually make it through 2 semesters of college calculus. I rarely experience a day that I don't use algebra, trigonometry, geometry or calculus at least once.
"For most people, Algebra will have no relevance."
A dubious assertion unless you think most people are going to be losers anyway. Certainly everyone should be familiar with the following equation in one form or another:
FV = PV*(1+r)^t
Absent any understanding of algebra, a person cannot understand just how important r and t are to obtaining FV. It seems more likely then that the mathematically ignorant would buried in credit card debt and face the prospect of destitution in retirement.
Every gambler should be familiar with the following equation in one form or another:
EV = P(Winning) * Jackpot * (1 - Marginal Tax Rate)
But the mathematically ignorant aren't, and that's why lotteries are so popular.
But you're probably right, though, that there ought to be more than way to teach the truly essential applications of algebra. The fact is that many folks don't have the intellectual raw material to be a Renaissance Man. Perhaps they should have special trade schools, or perhaps something like the "A-levels" and "O-levels" distinction they have in the UK.
eeks! Moon pi's are much better!
As an industrial supervisior, my old high school algebra book sat on my desk. I moved into sales and sure enough, had to keep it in the bookcase behind my desk. As a national account executive (I sell to big customers now), I had to dig it out again. I had to figure out a simple mark-up. I buy product at $22.80 and want to sell it with a 34% markup. Selling price is_____
Probably not in this form. The Egyptians knew of the 3,4,5 right triangle, and based everything from there. They didn't use 5,12,13 right triangles, or other right triangles that were not 3,4,5.
Sort of like how this thread is going -- some people are using algebra without knowing it. The Egyptians were using the Pythagorean theorem without knowing it.
f(x) = (Ping)^y
Reminds me of when the NY Lotto went from 40 to 48 numbers. The non-mathematical persons were saying "it's only 8 more numbers -- it couldn't be that much harder to get 6 out of 48 numbers".
LOL
Bump, I can't tell ypou how many times I've gone back to the "unit circle" just to try to make trig second nature.
He's just prejudiced, because a Muslim invented Algebra!
And that one looks round. I always heard that pie are square.
Well, no wonder he left it in the creek. A Kennedy wouldn't be caught dead in a two-year old automobile!......
it looks yummy, no matter HOW ya slice it ; )
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.
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