Do you use algebra?

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Hmm, what to write...
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#2439736 17-Mar-2020 09:12

Think of this simple real life example.

You buy some Rainex windscreen fluid for you car and it says on the pack to use 6oz per gallon (the bottle has oz marks on the side to help you)

how many oz do you put in your 5 litre reservoir

To work this out you are using algebra...even if you don't realise it

Matthew

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#2439768 17-Mar-2020 09:54

Software developer by weekday, DIY/mechanic/race car pilot by other days.

So yep, use algebra regularly. Gotta correctly calculate how many ugga duggas to apply to the nuts on the cars. Too many and you're calculating sheer strength, too few and you're calculating trajectory of where the errant wheel will end up.

Given I spreadsheet nearly everything and use many formulae to calculate things, there's many opportunities for algebraic expressions from fuel consumption to share price gains/losses.

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#2439799 17-Mar-2020 10:17

use it all the time. i'm in software engineering, but that's not really why...

a lot of people i know have the same sentiment as you - that they don't need/use algebra. the thing is, they do.

if you're buying 7 items at $5 apiece:

x = 7y

x = 7($5)

x = $35

that's an algebraic equation right there.

somebody offers you a job for this amount of money, you actually use algebra to find out how much you actually bring home, i.e. after tax, student loan repayments, kiwi saver, child support, etc.

Geektastic

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#2439837 17-Mar-2020 10:48

nitro:

use it all the time. i'm in software engineering, but that's not really why...

a lot of people i know have the same sentiment as you - that they don't need/use algebra. the thing is, they do.

if you're buying 7 items at $5 apiece:

x = 7y

x = 7($5)

x = $35

that's an algebraic equation right there.

somebody offers you a job for this amount of money, you actually use algebra to find out how much you actually bring home, i.e. after tax, student loan repayments, kiwi saver, child support, etc.

Surely that is better expressed more simply as 7x5=35? Expressing a simple multiplication as an equation is just complicating it for fun, I would have thought.

Nate001

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#2439896 17-Mar-2020 12:15

Geektastic:

nitro:

use it all the time. i'm in software engineering, but that's not really why...

a lot of people i know have the same sentiment as you - that they don't need/use algebra. the thing is, they do.

if you're buying 7 items at $5 apiece:

x = 7y

x = 7($5)

x = $35

that's an algebraic equation right there.

somebody offers you a job for this amount of money, you actually use algebra to find out how much you actually bring home, i.e. after tax, student loan repayments, kiwi saver, child support, etc.

Surely that is better expressed more simply as 7x5=35? Expressing a simple multiplication as an equation is just complicating it for fun, I would have thought.

Take for example a classic supermarket "deal" - 3 items for $10 or single for $3.50 - Whats the better price?

Yes most people would do 10/3 = 3.33 but in reality it was expressed as 3x = 10 -> x = 10/3. Is that over complicating it? Probably, but thats what it is.

nitro

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#2439913 17-Mar-2020 12:27

Geektastic:

Surely that is better expressed more simply as 7x5=35? Expressing a simple multiplication as an equation is just complicating it for fun, I would have thought.

didn't i say: x = 7y?

ah... but the point i was trying to make is that it's not complicated at all. that most people are actually using it often, if not all the time.

besides, as you alluded to, it's fun. :)

obviously, advanced algebra is not something that you're likely to need in your day-to-day life, unless you're in some specific field of work, but the basic principles are always handy.

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#2440015 17-Mar-2020 14:49

Anything you teach your brain will benefit you at some point... if you know it you will use it at some point. It's amazing what the brain will just pop out when you least expect it.

The amount of useless crap that I know, but every now and then there is a gold nugget hidden in amongst it.

Learn everything you can about everything you can now while your brain is young and not old tofu :) All knowledge is connected at some point... snowboarding -> physics -> maths -> music -> and so on

I'm not a complete idiot, I still have some parts missing.

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#2440227 17-Mar-2020 18:55

I always liked this one:

If a = b then

a2 = ab

a2-b2 = ab-b2

(a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b)

(a+b) = b

a+a = a since a=b

2a = a

2 = 1

eracode

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#2440442 18-Mar-2020 04:23

sqishy:

I always liked this one:

If a = b then

a2 = ab

a2-b2 = ab-b2

(a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b)

(a+b) = b

a+a = a since a=b

2a = a

2 = 1

@sqishy Are you trying to put the OP off his algebra? 🤔 😃

There’s illogic in there.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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#2440463 18-Mar-2020 06:52

TinyTim

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#2442278 20-Mar-2020 16:01

eracode:
sqishy:

I always liked this one:

If a = b then

a2 = ab

a2-b2 = ab-b2

(a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b)

(a+b) = b

a+a = a since a=b

2a = a

2 = 1

@sqishy Are you trying to put the OP off his algebra? 🤔 😃

There’s illogic in there.

Divide by zero error!

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#2442311 20-Mar-2020 16:54

Hi, use it often but as an electonics engineer specilising in board level RF design engineering thats to be expected. These days I work as a network engineer (as in IP and satellite networks), so not as much, ie I dont do long hand math as I might have doing "real" engineering stuff as in my previous life.

But what does amuse me is my work colleagues most a third my age, seem to have NFI how to do things long hand, it seems if google cannot solve it, its not solvable, fotunate for them Google seems to be getting quite clever!

Cyril

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#2442409 20-Mar-2020 19:13

halper86:
afe66:

I think its useful as a way of thinking way of approaching problems, like most things we learn at school.

I just feel like some of the stuff we learn is useless, instead of having algebra as compulsory, make it that only the people that want to take it can take it like people that want to go to uni. I do agree that some of the stuff is useful though - like basic math and english, not sure about science however.

It could be said that experience is having the wisdom gained from doing - knowledge is what is gained from having experience.

As a software engineer one is trained in science, engineering and management. The engineering side of things is the use of scientific principles to build things whether they be tangible such as a skateboard or intangible such as software.

Depending on the field one is in, the principles of algebra can be quite important, from the principles of developing algorithms through aiding in providing techniques to work with data, to even help with approaches to basic problem solving.

For me, I think if one doesn’t learn the basic building blocks, one can’t then go on to learn the more advanced technical stuff, and in 20 years time it is quite difficult to go back and that lost knowledge.

In the history of my field (software engineering) there were two really inspirational people back in the 1830s - Ada Lovelace and Mary Somerville. Mary was what we call a polymath - someone that is good at a lot of things, she was also Ada’s math tutor - she went on to become one of the first female joint members of the Royal Astronomical Society (along with Caroline Herschel) and her picture is on the scottish 10 pound note.

Ada is famous for helping Charles babbage building the Analytical engine. She is described as the first software engineer because apart from the engineering side of things in building the engine, later in working on the differential engine she recognised that punched cards (starting to be widely used at the time) could be used to implement and arrange instructions similar to algebra allowing the differential engine to make calculations.

punched cards were used quite widely until the 1970s.

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Tracer

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#2442855 21-Mar-2020 12:42

sqishy:

I always liked this one:

If a = b then

a2 = ab

a2-b2 = ab-b2

(a+b)(a-b) = b(a-b)

(a+b) = b

a+a = a since a=b

2a = a

2 = 1

Several of the steps imply a = b = 0, so the last step is nonsense.

jpoc

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#2443593 22-Mar-2020 11:43

I have been a software engineer since 1980 writing code that works directly with hardware.

I have used algebra and many other areas of maths throughout that time. I have also had to help out the hardware guys from time to time.

Outside of fusion research, I have never met a hardware engineer who understood elliptical integrals.

I also have to calculate percentages in my head when I play bridge.

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