Friday, June 24, 2005
What the heck is Algebra?!
I recently began taking a Pre-algebra class at the local college. I got through almost 2 classes before I had to reveal my own stupidity and ask the teacher what the heck he was talking about. Who in their right mind would estimate that adding 248 and 25 would result in 200? That's just stupid! Who decided all this? Who made up these words that nobody seems to be able to explain in English? AND WHAT IS AN IMAGINARY NUMBER!!!! Isn't it bad enough to try an figure out the numbers we do have, do we have to make up more?
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2 comments:
Math is like a foreign language. Think of it like this - In the English language there are many different ways to say "There's an apple on the table". It's the same way with math, there's a lot of different ways to express the exact same thing. Algebra is the method of translating the language into it's simplest terms and finding solutions to problems.
Imaginary numbers are a method of expressing a concept that simple can't exist in the real world. If you think about, there really isn't even such a thing as a negative number. It's only a concept. You can't have negative apples. You either have apples or you don't. Imaginary numbers are useful however in translating the language of math.
I took my first math test today and got a perfect score! I was pretty close to messing up a couple of times and thought I had but I guess thats how much I actually understand it. I don't even know when I've done it right.
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