On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 8:17 PM, Fred lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com> wrote:
As I waited at the checkout of our local wholefood shop, a lady who I know to be both literate and equipped with a technical background --- besides a number of other attributes which, though perhaps not immediately relevant to the discussion, hardly serve to encourage coherent impromptu cogitation on the part of an elderly academic --- conveyed to me an enquiry posed by her teenage daughter, along the lines of:
"You're a mathematician" (always an ominous opener, I have observed) "--- what's the use of algebra?"
I think I did eventually manage to marshall a reasonably convincing reply. But I wondered what would other people here have told her?
Fred Lunnon
I generally refer much more to the use of algebra as a symbolic notation for things, rather than as a set of procedures for manipulating those symbols. For instance, I'd say algebra is a way of representing a pattern, or an infinite collection of arithmetic facts. I often use analogies like "trying to represent a pattern without using algebra is like trying to write down a piece of music without using musical notation." Or look at what happened to choreography once better notation was invented there. I'm definitely interested in hearing what other people like to talk about! --Joshua Zucker