Ah yes, algebra. I've been doing algebra for about 3 years now and I've always wondered "What the hell is algebra for?" In all that time, only one explanation has been passed on to me; that if you become an architect or an engineer, you require algebra to work out the lengths of what you're constructing. Now what kind of lame answer is that? I mean, haven't people heard of SCALE before? Hello people! It's not so hard to work out lengths when you have a scale to help you! In all seriousness, if you are an architect or an engineer and you can't work out some tiny measurements, then you should have your license revoked immediately!
Since no one can tell me what algebra is REALLY for, I decided to find out myself. It only took something like a couple of hours of pure research, but I think I've come to some conclusions. The first one I came up with is that algebra can be used as propaganda; to distort facts, to change figures. For example, say you went to a used car dealership to buy a car. Now you are confronted by a used car dealer with a crew hair cut and fancy suit. Now, you see a car. You ask him how much it is. The dealer might say "This car is worth $50,000." Now, only a moron would say that (that's of course if you are considering that the used car dealer isn't a moron already). The dealer instead will say something like "You can have this car only for X dollars!" and along with that show you a smile. Look how he lessened the blow using algebra. Of course, you'd have to be pretty stupid to still buy the car even though you don't know how much it costs (is that actually possible?). But still, there is an example of how algebra is really used.
I also found out that algebra is used by lazy people to make shortcuts and to make them look smarter than they actually are. In fact, my old maths teacher described algebra as "the art of being mathematically lazy". Here are some example of how actual algebra is like this. Now, usually, you don't have to say 1X. Instead, you can just say X. Also, instead of saying X x Y, you can just say XY. Also, the equation X x Y = Z can mean any muliplication equation, whether it would be 4 x 5 or 14322 x 56874908. Now I'll give you a personal account of lazy people using algebra. A couple of months ago (mid 2002) I watched a news story on a current affairs program. In it, it was describing how a shonky home renovator was ripping people off. One guy he ripped off was obviously on welfare (seen my the way he talked and dressed). Instead of saying "I lost $10,000" he said "I lost X amount of dollars"! My god man, because you used basic math means that you're so smart, doesn't it? (I reckon the reason why the lazy bastard got sucked in was because the shonk said "I'll do it for X dollars!).
This is getting interesting folks, isn't it? Man, I think .....
