Has anyone had to use algebra out of school..................?

Question

We've all done it & been confused by it but has anyone actually needed it in their lives past school?

Billy Connolly had something very funny to say about it in one of his shows - so true!

.

Answer 1

Nope not me. Flipping burgers suits me just fine.

Answer 2

I absolutely detested Algebra, knew I would never need it as a police officer until we got to the accident investigation portion of the academy.
All of the sudden, there it was... speed equals the square root of distance times friction, etc.
Then after about 7 years on the department I had to go to advanced accident investigation school and even more algebra.
I'm telling you, don't ever count Algebra out. Just when you think you've turned your back on it and good riddance... it is there lurking, waiting to get you.
Study hard, you just can't believe how much of this stuff you will need later.
I even had to use German to translate at an accident scene where the guy was from Croatia but had worked in Germany for 30 years and spoke no English. All of the sudden, I thought
"Wow, you really do use this stuff" old Herrr Wallace would've been proud, we made it through the accident report no problem.

Answer 3

I have used it recently in the following circumstances. I was asked by a group of 64 people to devise a way so that they could meet in groups of 8 people in 8 different places at 9 different times, in such a way that they would be in the same group with each person exactly once out of the 9 meetings. Some kind of perfect mixing. After trying and trying, I realized that with some algebra it was obvious...

Answer 4

I use it when figuring out how to solve problems with variables in a non-scientific situation.

1000 widgits + 50 widgits added every 60 seconds - 120 taken for sampling quality results = n total of widgits in 90 minutes?

Machine #2 has a 25.36 second cycle in which it manufactures 36 widgits and it takes 355 cycles to fill one box. How many widgits are manufactured and in how many boxes at the end of 8 hours?

n (b + c) = d


Algebra is handy, so is calculus, but I use algebra more often.

Answer 5

Billy Connelly should know better.
He has proved that he is now an ignorant soft handed arty farty.

All technicians, engineers, architects, accountants, etc will be using algebra often, every day of their working lives.

Without algebra, the TV people couldn't get that clever-dick Scotsman on the screen.

Answer 6

No, and I was shocked to learn that I'd forgotten every single bit of it---even the developemental Algebra I'd taken when I returned to college back in the 1990s. Now I'm back in school again and had to go out and buy a copy of Algerbra for Dummies. ----A very humbling experinece.

Answer 7

It can be very use full in programing computers. If your trying to suggest that it is pointless to learn it because there is 'no' use of it outside of school, then you might be correct when it involves the majority of people. But, the very fact that one may have learned it in school may have changed his/her mind in such a way that it would have bettered it. In other words it is an additional skill which may have helped other more commonly used skills developed on a level which might not be that notable.

- Glich

Answer 8

Yes. As a pyrotechnic, a physicist, and even as a lowly banker, I've used algebra just about every day of my life.

Those who choose professions that do not require mathematics as a routine activity also surely benefit from the logical reasoning skills instilled by learning it anyway.

Answer 9

I taught algebra at the college level and use it daily, as do we all
.
Examples of these uses include formulas for distance, rate, and time; perimeter, area, and volume; bank interest and installment loans; and service and pricing options for management-information systems. Variables, functions, and relations are useful in analyzing situations involving costs, prices, rentals, and profits, both for the business manager and the intelligent consumer.

If you've ever figured out your paycheck, paid bills, done taxes, bought carpeting, fenced a yard, planned an automobile trip, or modified a recipe, you've used algebra.

Answer 10

I use it all the time! Mostly the easy intro stuff like finding the missing variable if I need to find out what percentage of something is (ie. sales!) but I do investing and if I need to keep my loan value at a certain percent, I better know how much I can afford to buy and how much my loan amount is before I ask for it.

Answer 11

yes. you have. everybody uses it everyday. not on paper maybe but mentally.

if you are going to walk to a friend's house which is 3 miles away and you have to be there by 7 o'clock then you would know you would have to leave at about 6 o'clock wouldn't you? that's because you have transposed the algebraic formula:

velocity equals distance over time into:

time equals distance over velocity:

the distance is 3 miles and you can walk at about 3 miles per hour so

time equals: 3 / 3 = 1 (hour) so you would leave at 6 o'clock.