Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for February 08, 2016

That algebra class came in handy for founders of Google and Apple.

I’ve used algebra quite a bit, but I’ve never found any use for calculus.

Course Rat probably failed Algebra anyway, so it’s no surprise he hasn’t used it since then.

So many courses/subjects covered in school have never come up again in my life. Someone should be held accountable for wasting so much of my time. I should have spent more time studying that cute little cheerleader………

People use algebra all the time and might not even realize it. For example, at the store, if you get 4 items for a dollar, how much does each one cost? 4x = 100; x = 100/4 = 25 cents each. Trivial example, but it is still algebra.

A lot of math is logic and a way of approaching a problem and those skills apply in many different ways.

I thought you needed to know Algebra to get into college?

3 Rs always usable………….

There was something about algebra that didn’t add up for me…

I use it quite often, in a minor way, eg for working out the third side of a right-angled triangle when I’m designing some railing.

Never said “If two oranges are $2, how much will I have to pay for a half dozen”?

Nobody has every asked me to analyze Joe Stalin’s type of leadership or the date of the battle at Agincourt either.

Learning math teaches you to think. Learning English teaches you how to express your thoughts. (YMMV depending on what country you’re from) Algebra helps with problem solving in general.

Al-Gebra: The terror group that strikes fear into the heart of high-school students.

If this strip takes place today, Rat left high school on March 1, 1995 (per timeanddate.com).

Algebra yes maybe once a month, calculus, saw someone else use it, trig never even close… and i quoted tolstoy in a office memo once….

Algebra is, I think, rarely used by most people after high school. What was talked about in some comments above was just arithmetic, not algebra with its host of formulas and equations expressed often by letters rather than numerals….

But that does not excuse Rat’s abuse of Mr Brown!

@NeedaChuckle—Answer: Friday, October 25, 1415—Question: What’s the date of the Battle of Agincourt??

That will show him!

I bet Rat can’t show his work either.

Rat, what are you talking about? There is not a day that goes by when I don’t use my algebra skills when this kind of question is thrown at me? An Amtrak train is going NW from Washington, DC to Boston. It is traveling 54.2 MPH. It has 16 passenger cars but only one Cafe Car that is out-of-stock of everything except $5.27 hot dogs. Ben paid $94.65 for his one way ticket. At the same time a 58 cattle car train is traveling from Dallas to Chicago. It is traveling at a speed of 61.7 MPH. The average cow weighs 1.02 tons and the cost to ship the cow is 46 cents per pound. What is the temperature in Portland, OR at noon on Thursday?

How do you get by without using algebra for those kind of every day problems? How else do you get the answers?

Schools need to teach life skills, desperately. Many/most parents don’t have them and so it should be in the curriculum each year. Negotiations, the compounding of interest which shows the importance of investing and also of never going into credit card debt, situation ethics, how to resolve conflict, how to think rationally/practical problem solving, basic legal concepts such as contracts, and so much more. Of course since this would undo the purpose and aims of religions, it will be a battle, but in time as we continue to evolve socially we can produce a society of actual grown-ups if the will is there.

Algebra is a life skill. Rat sucks at life. Maybe if Rat used the algebra he learned, he wouldn’t be so miserable. :-P

Rat’s everyday problem: If you have $10, how much beer can you buy? That’s real world algebra.

Well, I knew right off the bat that he couldn’t have been his English teacher. It’s “may,” not “can.” (Although in this case, the answer to “can” was obviously “no,” also.) OK, Annoying Grammar Police mode off. :)

A few years ago, a grown man called me and asked, “If the bottle [of a winemaking additive] says to use half a teaspoon for one gallon, how much do I use for five gallons?”Some people should stick to using their hands instead of their heads, and just go to the liquor store.

I use it all the time.

Most folks that work at Burger King don’t.

It’s been almost 40 years since I graduated and I’m STILL waiting for a chance to use whatever skill I picked up from dissecting that stupid frog.

I am continually amazed (and saddened) by the number of fellow Americans I encounter, such as many in these comments, who are bursting with pride over their lack of knowledge of Algebra and other basic math skills. The same goes for history, geography (yes, you Dave) and languages. I’m not sure if I’ve “used” the Shakespeare I learned in high school, but I realize being able to understand the many references to his plays in literature and other media heightens my appreciation. When I tell people I have tri-lingual grandchildren, or a sister-in-law who speaks seven languages, they are often flabbergasted, as if such a thing is impossible beyond the domain of super-geniuses. No matter what is your political viewpoint, understanding the world’s condition is much easier if you know “useless history”. Or geography. A neighbor once nearly threw me out of his house for knowing the Trivial Pursuit answer, as if it is trivial, to “Into which ocean does the Zambesi River flow?” (Hint: the river forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia.)

What people often don’t realize is learning stuff you won’t use isn’t the point, its proving you can learn stuff. I see college degrees with no practical use in the work place, yet people who have them get paid more than those who don’t. The reason being is those with them have evidence they can be taught and learn new things.

I was a quartermaster (navigator) in the Submarine Force, and I used algebra for interpolating tide tables, trig when calculating distance to another ship; we had to memorize a basic sine table for target calculations; vector math for relative motion calculations, and of course plane geometry for plotting. I even used constructions (which I pretty much blew off in class) to plot the perpendicular bisector of a river channel, for example. And beyond what I learned in HS, we did spherical trig, where you can have a triangle with three 90-degree angles. We used tables for that, but you had to understand it… Thanks, Mrs. Gsell!

I always tell my students, if they’re not headed for the sciences or engineering, they may not use algebra after high school (but it’s a given if they never learn it!); however, algebra teaches reasoning, logic and problem solving skills that are useful regardless.

When introduced to algebra in a large Allentown PA high school in 1951 in a class of 35 students, the teacher was out most of the year sick, & we had substitute teachers, & little continuity going trough all the phases of beginning algebra.

When it came time for a final exam my father, a top executive engineer in WE helped me prepare for a month doing complex reading questions. I was expert at the mechanical function of every kind of algebra, but had difficulty understanding which formula to use. Eventually I caught on due to my father’s patient help,

However, the exam seemed totally different from the large variety of reading problems my father gave me, he took from my algebra text book. Lined up with 35 other kids getting their marks I was nearly last in line. The tired teacher looked at my test & remarked that it seemed I hardly studied for the test, but he’s give me 75 anyway. This was the beginning of the end for any interest or trust in higher math. I was put down in front of my peers, & unfairly accused of not studying.

Yet years later, in my professional job, I had to use geometry, & some algebra to deal with complex analog issue in graphic arts photography, & preparing artwork for reproduction, as it was done in early 60’s. Also I was part of Fire Control Sectionin a National Guard Battery B, in Independence MO, Harry Truman’s old outfit. Had to use all manner of geometry & other math to calculate information given the Gun crew.No computers, all math in the head.

For all who didn’t like algebra in High School there may somewho had my negative experience with a teacher.

Que: How many times can you subtract two from 21?

Anyone know the answer? come on…anyone?

Algebra, isn’t that something mermaids wear?

Rat either doesn’t actually know what algebra is and thus doesn’t realize when he’s using it, or else this is really a commentary on how Rat does absolutely nothing. I’ve found algebra to be one of the MOST useful things I learned in my pre-college years that I still make use of now.

I have actually gotten to use algebra on several occasions after school. It was great!

You probably do algebra more than you know. It looks more like word problems in real life….

It teaches you how to think.

hey it does come in handy. example…it can be useful in asking for directions:What you gotta do is go down the road past the old Johnson place. You’re gonna find two roads, one parallel and one perpendicular. Keep going until you come to a highway that bisects it at a 45 degree angle. Solve for x.

Rat had to use algebra just figure the number of days (365 x yrs) since high school. Unless he just stated counting, starting from the date he graduated. I’m having trouble believing rat graduated.

I don’t know, rat, you might have used it to calculate that it has been 7649 days since high school.

I only done Algebra a little bit in school. I have never had to use it either.

xxx

Been using algebra since Lotus 123

The way I see it, some day, you’re going to be a parent, and your child will think you’re an idiot (or more of one) if you can’t help with math or science homework.My wife, who is a teacher, can help with language arts and some history, but she directs the kids to me for STEM questions.

Steel x feet thick with supports y feet apart can hold z pounds. Rat may not have personally used algebra but if he has ever crossed a bridge, he is glad someone did.

Rat was in high school?

So can we conclude that Rat is about 38 years old? Therefore, Pig probably is too. So can we also conclude that’s your age too, Steph? Is today your birthday or something? A subtle hint, maybe?

I use algebra…………………some. I use geometry…………..some, but I never, ever, use trig or calculus

an algae bra would be slimy and very quick to fall apart i imagine

Rat is mistaken. In making his calculation, he knew he had to multiply the number of years since high school by 365. Whenever someone takes an unknown quantity and says “I have to do (some mathematical operation) to it to get my answer,” that person is implicitly using algebra. At any rate, perhaps Rat’s bad attitude to math is one reason he is stuck as an ill-tempered character in a decidedly odd (albeit highly likeable) comic strip!

You can tell Rat’s not a knitter.

So, by my calculations, 7649 days is almost 21 years. Assuming Rat graduated high school at age 18, that makes him almost 39 years old now. And yet he says we never use algebra. Preposterous!

Yeah—I’m being a total nerd for the purpose of this comment …

Used it in pricing a gold inventory.

Calculus defines the relationships between such things as distance traveled, velocity and acceleration also length, area and volume.

The math teacher in me is experiencing a bit of schadenfreude that Rat, the poster child for the anti-algebra crowd, is a right-wing, anti-intellectual drunkard.

Rat should thank his English teacher for teaching him the word “cathartic”. Even if he learned it in connection with Greek dramas which he hasn’t read since then any more than he’s used algebra.

I’ll bet you also have not run the 440 yard dash or the high hurdles but you never hear people “beaching” about that. A lot of people understand the concept of stretching and toning the body but not the mind.

does he mark lines on a wall or did he multiply number of year since leaving school by 365 to know how many days have past. Then again, hobos don’t pay taxes

So Rat is about 37 years old?

I will tell this to all of my math teachers eventually