May 08, 2006

In Defense of Algebra

One would think a defense of learning algebra wasn't needed, but Kenneth Silber feels compelled since he points out a few pundits have bashed the branch of mathematics. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen told a high school dropout, "You will never need to know algebra. I have never once used it and never once even rued that I could not use it." I'm sure that's just what employers want to hear. Instead of finding workers who can employ algebra's analytic reasoning Cohen blows it off by leaving all that number stuff to the "computer or a calculator."

Here's a semi-important real-world application: look at a sales receipt and determine the sales tax rate. (I'll leave finding the formula as an exercise for the reader.) You would then know if the store was using the correct rate. You say, "Big deal"? Knowing how much the state takes out of your wallet is good citizenship.

There are plenty of on-the-job examples involving production yields or rates or some other unknown quantity needing to be discovered. Training manuals can only take you so far. Sometimes a problem arises that goes beyond any training or formula in a book. That's when a pencil, a piece of paper, and some high school algebra can do wonders. For Cohen sitting in his office bloviating on the latest Washington happenings that never happens.

Like any technology algebra (and mathematics in general) has its place. As an Austrian economics sympathizer heavily influenced by Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek I understand running an entire economy using mathematical models is a hopeless cause. The Soviets' attempt at that led to decades of suffering. Yet without abstract mathematics like algebra our control over physical forces would be quite limited.

It would take a lot of Cohen's literary reasoning to develop the technology needed to make the tools he uses to tap out his columns. Thankfully we have algebra and more advanced mathematics to help design the logic that runs computers and organize the flow of good and services. Cohen's admitted ignorance gives him no right to bash a foundation of the modern world. Instead he should be downright thankful someone learned their algebra in high school.

"Algebra and Its Enemies"