Why Algebra?

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Yes. Household budgeting, taxes, gas mileage, etc, is mostly just arithmetic, and doesn't really cross into algebra country much.

Arithmetic becomes algebra when you start using variables (letters to represent unknown quantities). Ive done that with hobbies, like designing my own board games that simulate naval warfare, or space warfare. But not much in practical day to day stuff (like figuring out which size detergent to buy in the store).

Algebra helps logic and reasoning skills, it helps to understand complex dynamics. A lot of how it shapes thinking pays off in subconscious reasoning. It's really small minded to think that you know that algebra is useless just because you don't get it.

Most jobs that actually pay a livable wage require some math. If you spend money daily, then there you go. Daily life, obtusely apparent use of math, all in one neat package.

Algebra at the level you're at may seem boring, but once you get to higher level math it becomes really, really cool. But you have to walk before you can run, so just suck it up and do the work.

Incorrect. Practical day-to-day stuff involves much more cognitive abilities than any of us are aware of, and the reasoning skills gained from algebra and beyond enhance those abilities. Just because you aren't sitting down with your scientific calculator and your pencil behind your ear to solve for x doesn't mean you aren't benefiting from the intellectual training of tracking dynamic relationships with algebra.

Even moreso once you get into calculus, which requires algebra. Calculus made me a much smarter, more agile thinker. It affects my reasoning daily, which I know, because I do calculus daily (by way of upper division theoretical and applied math classes) and I see how much sharper I am than the people I live with and my friends who don't do math.

It's not just about literally solving problems. Such an American attitude to think that if it isn't super obvious it doesn't exist, and to try to argue that math is useless. Americans can be so lazy.

I suppose it's possible to get by in life without algebra, but it does make some mathematical truths easier to communicate and think about, once you get used to it. It's just arithmetic that uses letters to represent unknown or variable numbers, so we can show the general case instead of having to list every possible specific instance.

To my mind an algebraic formula is like a little machine, I give it a number or two (e.g. how many miles I've cycled and how many minutes it took) and it spits out the number I want (my average speed for the journey in miles per hour). Of course that's extremely simple and I could get the result from a speedometer, and it's not particularly useful for me to know the speed I cycle at.

My mathematics teacher showed us how to use calculus to find out the shape of the biggest parcel that could be sent via the post office for a particular price. It was a sphere.

I've found algebra quite useful when designing simple electronic circuits for audio (music). And I wouldn't have known where to start writing computer programs without it.

Converting centigrade to fahrenheit and back, it's much simpler to say "C=(F-32)x5/9" than "well, you take your fahrenheit number and you subtract 32, then you multiply by 5 and then you divide by 9, but if you want to convert it back, you take your centigrade number, multiply by 9, divide by 5, and then add 32." Anybody used to the rules of algebra will have no trouble deducing that if C=(F-32)x5/9, then F=(Cx9/5)+32. It's the language of quantities and the relationships between them.

Last edited by ToughDiamond on 08 Apr 2018, 3:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You do algebra without knowing. You had $47 before buying new trousers. You forgot the price (x) but you want to know how much you paid. In your purse, there is $4 left after the purchase. You know instantly that then the price was 47-4=43. Actually, you just did algebra without knowing:
47-x=4
-x=4-47
x=-(4-47)
x=-4+47
x=47-4
x=43

For less obvious stuffs, it is helpful to have algebra, like statistics, geometry, engineering
Of course, if you want to be an English teacher later, it will not help you a lot in your career

same for all the math stuff beyond basic arithmetic. That is what we need in daily life.

School is there to open and prepare students to various careers.

For a future mathematician, it is also not that useful to have courses of literature or sport

I was taught this kind of math in PreAlgebra. What they tried to teach us in Algebra 1 were problems where the letter is used more than 1ce in it like~ Y+9=2xY Or they tried to each us problems where more than one letter was used. Those things are just too complicated for my dyslexia, dysgraphia, & dyscalia to begin to comprehend how to figure it out thou I did OK in PreAlegebra & Business Math.

Anybody see the 1988 film, 'Stand & Deliver?' If not, watch it. This is worth viewing more than once.
Wikipedia LINK includes links for further details on the values of Algebra & Calculus:

LINK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_and_Deliver