For me, it would depend on the education of the person involved. If I were replying to an average citizen, I would say something like, "Everytime you compute your income tax you are actually doing algebra. Everytime you compute your property tax you are actually doing algebra. When you compute the mortgage you can afford for a new house, then you are doing algebra." For people with higher education, I would point to Noether's Theorem and note that all physical conservation laws are based in symmetries, which are themselves described by Group Theory - again algebra. But I don't run into this attitude much any more. The construction workers at my local dive bar have a healthy respect for algebra! Rowan. On Wed, 12 Nov 2008, Fred lunnon 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
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