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Math does have use in our society. Algegra is not math and is not used. This argument has been gone over and the pro algebra supporters have never won an argument.
Algebra is a fundamental/the basics in maths. Architecture, chemistry, chemical engineery, any science has its ABC's in algebra. I cannot imagine tackling calculus, trig, etc without understanding algebra. Heck, my first physics class was algebra-based physics. And balancing chemical equations in chemistry is the same skill set as balancing algebra equations. Honestly, I'm not familiar with any argument against learning algebra.
eta: And I use basic algebra every day at work. I wouldn't be able to do my job without it, in the same way that I wouldn't be able to do my job if I didn't know how to read and write. Really, the more I think about your post, the sillier it reads/sounds.
Algebra is a fundamental/the basics in maths. Architecture, chemistry, chemical engineery, any science has its ABC's in algebra. I cannot imagine tackling calculus, trig, etc without understanding algebra. Heck, my first physics class was algebra-based physics. And balancing chemical equations in chemistry is the same skill set as balancing algebra equations. Honestly, I'm not familiar with any argument against learning algebra.
eta: And I use basic algebra every day at work. I wouldn't be able to do my job without it, in the same way that I wouldn't be able to do my job if I didn't know how to read and write. Really, the more I think about your post, the sillier it reads/sounds.
I know you are an intelligent person. I also know your young and gullible to what schools teach today. Among so many arguments, some right here in this forum, the job I do I am told I need to be able to add letters to survive. I challenged many and never lost. That dont make me great, that makes me smarter because I prove that adding letters do not work. Give me any sample in my work with the so called missing unknown and I will figure it out in less then half the time.
So many of our parents and grand parents have survived without that nonsense and they too were Engineers, Chemists and so on. If you have another way to figure an answer then fantastic. I say there is a more logical way.
Which leads me to my belief that there are 2 types of intelligence, street smarts and book smarts. You already agreed on that. Streets smarts feeds off logic. You need logic to build on intelligence.
Math does have use in our society. Algegra is not math and is not used. This argument has been gone over and the pro algebra supporters have never won an argument.
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Originally Posted by suzie02
I've never heard such an ignorant statement in my life.
If you don't understand it and can't figure it out it must be useless, right?
I think I'm about average. I'm not smart but I don't think I'm a complete moron either, though the latter is definitely debatable.
Edit- This thread has made me think about all the ridiculous things I've done in my life, so I have to change my answer. I am, without a doubt, an idiot.
Overall, I suspect there are millions of gradations of intelligence. If you look at other people, how many do you see who look exactly alike? Surely the brains of people have as many differences as faces.
And, I believe there are kinds of "smarts" that haven't been noted, and may never will. The many facets of personality, intuition, common sense, and grasp of knowledge are intermingled in such a way as to form distinct gestalts. People who think all people can be pigeon-holed into some category by an IQ test or college entrance exam can be unfair.
There are 2 kinds of intelligence. Street smarts and book smart. I know a whole lot of kids who walk out the doors of the school house for the last time and can not even explain a can opener. But they can add A+B which has no use in our society despite what Algebra Teachers tell you.
Still I know street smart kids who could paint a beautiful mural, build a house or maybe rebuild a motor. All more useful tools to have then some of the crap they jamb down your throats in school today.
When I was in a position to hire, I held my breath when they came in with the 4.0 college scores who thought they just knew everything. I never met one who knew anything. But I went through the motions and in the end always hired the street smart witty sharp good quick thinker person. Age never ever mattered and neither did their education level.
Well, not exactly.
There's general intelligence (usually defined as "g" in psychometric literature), but "book smarts" versus "street smarts," while overlapping in both cases with "g," are not the same thing as "g."
Solving for x is required knowledge in the 21st century (last century too). You're doing it, just not in the conventional way.
I'm intelligent enough to realize how very much that I do not know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41
I know you are an intelligent person. I also know your young and gullible to what schools teach today. Among so many arguments, some right here in this forum, the job I do I am told I need to be able to add letters to survive. I challenged many and never lost. That dont make me great, that makes me smarter because I prove that adding letters do not work. Give me any sample in my work with the so called missing unknown and I will figure it out in less then half the time.
So many of our parents and grand parents have survived without that nonsense and they too were Engineers, Chemists and so on. If you have another way to figure an answer then fantastic. I say there is a more logical way.
Which leads me to my belief that there are 2 types of intelligence, street smarts and book smarts. You already agreed on that. Streets smarts feeds off logic. You need logic to build on intelligence.
Overall, I suspect there are millions of gradations of intelligence. If you look at other people, how many do you see who look exactly alike? Surely the brains of people have as many differences as faces.
And, I believe there are kinds of "smarts" that haven't been noted, and may never will. The many facets of personality, intuition, common sense, and grasp of knowledge are intermingled in such a way as to form distinct gestalts. People who think all people can be pigeon-holed into some category by an IQ test or college entrance exam can be unfair.
I should have been more specific, sorry. I was thinking more about the stupid things I did, academically, not stupid things I did in life, in general (though there are plenty of those, too!). I'm not even going to tell you the stupid stuff I did, academically, it's to embarrassing . Kinda off topic but, I bet the smartest person in the world is someone everyone thinks is a complete moron. Paris Hilton, maybe? lol jk
I should have been more specific, sorry. I was thinking more about the stupid things I did, academically, not stupid things I did in life, in general (though there are plenty of those, too!). I'm not even going to tell you the stupid stuff I did, academically, it's to embarrassing . Kinda off topic but, I bet the smartest person in the world is someone everyone thinks is a complete moron. Paris Hilton, maybe? lol jk
You could be right! As an analogy, there are millionaires living very modest middle-income lives and nobody knows.
I know you are an intelligent person. I also know your young and gullible to what schools teach today.
I'm 37 lol. I haven't been in HS in many moons. The last algebra class I took was physics and it was pretty good.
Quote:
Among so many arguments, some right here in this forum, the job I do I am told I need to be able to add letters to survive. I challenged many and never lost. That dont make me great, that makes me smarter because I prove that adding letters do not work. Give me any sample in my work with the so called missing unknown and I will figure it out in less then half the time.
Maybe it depends on the job. What's your job? As best as I understand it and utilize algebra, is that the point of adding, multiplying, dividing, etc these letters is because they are representative of something else. The letters are just place holders for variables. The same equation can be used for different variables every time. For example, C1 V1 = C2 V2 is a simple equation with the purpose of solving for an unknown. Of course the concentrations and volumes are dependent on the work being done. It's a quick and simple method to solve for the unknown. It takes a couple of seconds to plug into a calculator. This might not be useful for you, but it's definately useful for me.
When I'm creating a calibration curve to figure out whatever my experiment is doing, of course I use y= mx+b. Obviously, I don't have to write it out. I just use a trend line in excel and the program does it for me, but this equation is pretty darn important when I'm analyzing data. How do you create a linear curve if you're not using this equation?
Quote:
So many of our parents and grand parents have survived without that nonsense and they too were Engineers, Chemists and so on. If you have another way to figure an answer then fantastic. I say there is a more logical way.
Ok, I'm interested in your alternatives to the above examples. I'm looking forward to your ideas. I suspect they will be pretty interesting. Also, a quicker method to any of the above should prove to be handy.
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. Kinda off topic but, I bet the smartest person in the world is someone everyone thinks is a complete moron. Paris Hilton, maybe? 
lol jk
