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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Liberator on December 06, 2003, 11:17:08 pm

Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Liberator on December 06, 2003, 11:17:08 pm
But I'm working on a project for school and I need to know some ways that Algebra, and Trigonometry to a lesser degree, are used in life.

With Algebra I'm drawing a complete blank.

Trig is a little easier: Ballistics(rocketry, hunting, military), Aircraft design, Archetecture and a few others.  So what I really need help with is Algebra.
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: silverwolf on December 06, 2003, 11:20:31 pm
trip planning is all i can think of
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: redsniper on December 06, 2003, 11:20:35 pm
if fighter A travels east at 80 m/s and fighter B travels west at 60 m/s...
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: adwight on December 07, 2003, 12:17:27 am
Umm... seeing how much you're going to owe for insurance and what not???  Of course you could always do the mixed chemicals problems...
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Knight Templar on December 07, 2003, 01:11:44 am
:doubt: You use algebra just about everywhere in modern life, to some extent or another.
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: karajorma on December 07, 2003, 03:43:58 am
It's used all over the place in computing too. Lots of 3D functions require all kinds of algebra.

All the sciences need it to a greater or lesser degree (physics especially!).
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: WMCoolmon on December 07, 2003, 03:54:28 am
Marketing especially. Try taking a stats class without knowing any algebra.

Oh, and psychohistory. ;)
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Carl on December 07, 2003, 04:09:46 am
Lots of sentences can be reduced to algebra. Take this sentence you may say about a movie: "No matter how good the rest it was, that one little part ruined the whole thing." In algebraic terms, it's: A=0, ,B is any number, then AB.

A is the small part, and B is the rest of the movie.
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Hippo on December 07, 2003, 06:26:00 am
Quote
Originally posted by Knight Templar
:doubt: You use algebra just about everywhere in modern life, to some extent or another.


:nod: :nod: :nod:
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Fineus on December 07, 2003, 07:59:59 am
That doesnt really answer the question though does it :rolleyes:
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: 01010 on December 07, 2003, 08:34:16 am
I guess it depends on what you want to do in life, I'd find algebra quite useless in my quest for rock stardom. Unless I start writing educational rock music. Hmm.
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Falcon on December 07, 2003, 02:03:45 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Carl
"No matter how good the rest it was, that one little part ruined the whole thing."


Your sentence is a perfect anagram :D

"THO TINT RETALIATES, TARGETED HOMO WITH NUT WON TELEGRAPHED RHINO TEST HOWL."
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Hippo on December 07, 2003, 03:25:22 pm
ok...
Title: Re: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Woolie Wool on December 07, 2003, 03:35:44 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Liberator
But I'm working on a project for school and I need to know some ways that Algebra, and Trigonometry to a lesser degree, are used in life.

With Algebra I'm drawing a complete blank.

Trig is a little easier: Ballistics(rocketry, hunting, military), Aircraft design, Archetecture and a few others.  So what I really need help with is Algebra.


Try programming without algebra and see how far you get.
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Woolie Wool on December 07, 2003, 03:36:35 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Falcon


Your sentence is a perfect anagram :D

"THO TINT RETALIATES, TARGETED HOMO WITH NUT WON TELEGRAPHED RHINO TEST HOWL."


:lol:
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: CP5670 on December 07, 2003, 03:38:26 pm
You mean high school algebra and not abstract algebra right? That stuff comes up in just about every branch of science; you can put down everything you did for trig (basically, anything physics or engineering) along with anything related to finance or economics, and of course programming computer games. :D

Quote
"THO TINT RETALIATES, TARGETED HOMO WITH NUT WON TELEGRAPHED RHINO TEST HOWL."


lol, didn't know "tho" was a word though... :p
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Falcon on December 07, 2003, 06:33:25 pm
No wonder why the movie was bad ;7 :lol:

Thats that anagram machine thingy :D
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: Stryke 9 on December 07, 2003, 06:39:19 pm
Most programming is algebra, quite a lot of physics (many of the same ballistics calculations you were talking about, it's not so simple as a sine wave) too.

What's really annoying is calculus. I mean, what the ****? Why bother teach it, never mind force it on the majority of students? There are, at most, a few thousand people in the world that use it sometimes. It's like having a required course in walrus-hunting.


Except that a walrus-hunting class would be cool, and not boring. And you'd never be short on blubber or ivory during, um, a blubber-and-ivory related crisis. Probably of the sort pertaining to scrimshaw.
Title: This is gonna sound stupid
Post by: mikhael on December 08, 2003, 12:17:07 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Stryke 9
What's really annoying is calculus. I mean, what the ****? Why bother teach it, never mind force it on the majority of students? There are, at most, a few thousand people in the world that use it sometimes. It's like having a required course in walrus-hunting.


Calculus is really the mathematics of the real world, when you get right down to it.

Calculus is used by hundreds of millions of people every day. It has applications in virology, biology, pharmacology, 3d, programming, audio/video processing, marketting, sociology, physics (almost all physics is calculus based), etc.

If you think that only a few thousand people in the world us it, you've been either mistaught (IE, they never showed you the applicability to the real world) or you're just being willfully stupid.