Why Algebra?

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Why do students have to learn so much algebra? It’s not helpful in daily life.

Algebra is indispensable in every day life. For example, without algebra, how would you know that you can add two numbers together in either order? And if you don't know algebra, you are not going to be able to progress at all in any area of mathematics.

It definitely is useful, especially when trying to manage a budget and know how much money you'll receive from a job either from salary or monthly income. This is important when trying to budget the amount you get from a check in order to pay for the necessities such as keeping a roof over your head and food in your mouth if you end up living independently one day (if not already).

Why algebra? Simple, it lets you script out a series of math problems into an easy to manage flow. For example, let's say that I want to add 3 plus 5 and then take the answer from that and subtract 2 and then take the answer from that and multiply it by 3. Or I can just write it like this.

x = 3 + 5
y = x - 2
z = y * 3

I can make it even smaller by.

z=(3+5) - 2 * 3

in the end.

z = 18

if your daily life consists of shooting up heroin, or going to furniture stores during slow hours and trying to sneak in a quick nap, then, yeah, i would say algebra isn't that useful.


if you do literally anything else, though...you'd be hard pressed to go a significant amount of time without using algebra. it took me longer than expected to come up with my first two examples because every time i came up with something, i realized "wait a minute, you DO have to use a little bit of maths here and there..."

so, there you go. if you spend hours fishing coins out of gutters, you use algebra to sum up your findings. if you're a manager at a bakery, you use algebra. if you're like me and you work at a tortilla warehouse separating product for countywide shipment, you're going to be using maths a lot.

if schools knew that their students, coming in, would live the rest of their lives not ever using a particular subject, of course they wouldn't teach it.

but they don't know, and people do use it. that's why it's taught. that's the whole point of schools.

granted, the higher one progresses in his education the more specific the things he studies tend to be. if one had said "theropod taxonomy is not useful in daily life", or "knowing specific details on the casualties of the battle of thermopylae isn't useful in daily life", then i would agree.

but algebra.....

i hate studying math too but i at least appreciate the objectivity and how much it remains the same despite how much everything else seems to change.

Okay, how about when will I ever have to factor a Trinomial?

Understanding numbers is a double-edged sword because literally no human being I interact with understands how numbers (and especially percentages) work... the other day my dear mother was trying to be clever while reading a news story and seriously said "how can there be 105% more homeless? You can't have more 100%" and I felt like screaming... or the sign outside of a furniture store that boasts that, because you don't pay 20% VAT, you are paying 20% less (it's 1/6)... understanding numbers is like some constant inverse-gaslighting torture

Anyway, you need algebra because otherwise you're going to be a grown-ass adult reciting tables like a small child in order to figure out basic things. Algebra teaches you the general process you need to find solutions more quickly and gracefully, and that's important for pretty much every adult.

And once you understand how to simplify and resolve mathematical problems you can take that skill to other places, and use the logic to solve other (not necessarily mathematical) problems, by delineating the elements and resolving whatever the problem is in the simplest way possible, as you would with algebra.

Also! School isn't just about teaching you what you need, it's about teaching you what your options are later down the road. More advanced Maths and Science are not things that you will naturally stumble upon and learn in life, so without learning about them in some depth you will never be able to make an informed choice whether or not they will be fields of further study for you. Literature is important because it gives you a wide perspective of society, history, politics etc. while also contextualising and humanising those things in a way that younger students often find easier to digest. All of those core subjects are considered worthless by some but they absolutely are not.

To the anti PC crowd:

Algebra was invented by them Muslim AY-rabs.

That's why we can not allow our young school age folks to be exposed to it. Once they are exposed to algebra its only a matter of time until America will have Sharia law!


To the PC crowd:

Algebra was invented in the Middle Ages by Muslim Arabs. Therefore the teaching of algebra in American schools is just shameless, and insensitive, cultural appropriation. It needs to stop NOW!

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I stoop to singing in both tunes just so I don't have to deal with simultaneous equations any more! Lol!

Last edited by naturalplastic on 09 Dec 2017, 7:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Algebra is about method, rigor and thought process. Not only does algebra teach you how to process and resolve a given problem, but it requires your brain to switch between letters and numbers, that is, it basically makes you familiar with bilingualism. The problem is that it is not taken seriously by students (nor parents) ; flaws in algebra equal to flaws in other areas later down the road...

(naturalplastic, it is not okay to hold such a statement)

It helps people learn to think complex thoughts and employ logic. It also weeds out people who can't or won't learn those things.

Algae bra? I don't know.. ask a mermaid.

To be fair, you shouldn't equate political correctness in general to the worst excesses of the 'SJW' crowd.

Smart engineers would learn calculus so they didn't have to waste their time doing stuff that just wasn't possible for their managers or bosses. Instead, calculus allowed them to prove what was possible. Alternately, they could just work on what was possible and leave the impossible to the guys who didn't know what they were doing.

I learned this stuff in Business Math & did pretty well in the class. I only passed Algebra 1 because the teacher curved my grade. I really do feel like Alegbra is useless for everyday life. PreAlegbra is pretty useful to like the Business Math is but regular or advanced alegbra is not

That depends on what you like, need or want in your life.

Yes, some people don't need algebra for the life they choose and like. But the thing is, you don't know for sure that you later won't like a subject that uses algebra, or want to solve a math problem that requires algebra.
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Someone said:



So you think that most people don't know that two numbers can be added together in either order? ...because they haven't read about the commutative axiom for addition?

Axioms are useful, as the basis for rigorous proofs of mathematical theorems. The facts embodied by those axioms are all or nearly all things that everyone knows. They're formal statements of things that everyone knows.




Hello? Those areas of mathematics that require algebra are part of what she's questioning the value of.
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Kiki1256--My answer is that you don't yet know that you won't need algebra later for something that you like, or some math problem that you'll need to solve.

Additionally, you don't know that you wouldn't like algebra, unless you give it a chance.

I suggest taking algebra. It's useful in lots of subjects, and some of those are sure to be subjects that would interest you, subjects that you like, would like, or will like. In fact, algebra, and other math that uses it, can be useful in pretty much any subject you like.

Michael829

Like it not the world around you is based off of math and algebra.

Algebra allows you to make a generic formula and say you know a few of the numbers and figure out an answer from there. This sounds so useless, but if you want to do anything in science, computing, games, 3d animation or run your own business you will likely need to learn algebra. How do you prove your business model works without math, and using even basic formulas like working out % growth etc. The more in depth you get into a subject the more likely it is you will end up using math to figure things out.