Misundertanding of Algebra Why We Should Continue to Have...

Ever since the ancient civilizations of Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, and India, we have used mathematics. It has guided the advancement of society and it has led to incredible discoveries. However, the amount of math students should learn has become an issue. Almost every well educated person would agree that all students should learn the value of math. By the time students reach the level of algebra, however, we see politicians, the media, students and parents arguing if they should even learn algebra. One of the reasons is that many U.S. students are failing algebra in high school and college. Algebra is the minimum requirement for all students in high school and a basic requirement in college and universities. To ask to change the†¦show more content†¦This would give us answer of 4.30 hours to drive to Las Vegas from Los Angeles. Now this is one way to describe what algebra is, but we also have formulas to help us. The quadratic formula, Pythagorean Theorem, and the equati on of a line are just a few of the formulas we use to solve algebraic problems. The ancient Egyptians used the Pythagorean Theorem to design and build the pyramids of Egypt. Civil engineers across Europe built the massive cathedrals using algebra in a time when machinery was not available. Algebra helped aerospace engineers figured out how to send three astronauts to the moon in 1969. Our advancement in technology and society will depend on people with exceptional math skills to build the bridge to the future. As of now, we need to make people realize how useful algebra is in everyday life before we can go the next step. A question that sometimes is mentioned is how can algebra make our lives easier? Some people assume that our need for math is basic. This is saying that we should be fine as long as we can add, subtract, multiply, and divide. What these people do not realize is that algebra is used in our lives more than they think. For students, determining your grade-point-average (GPA) and understanding what is your class grade takes a bit of algebra to understand. For example, if a high school student wants to determine what their GPA for admission to a university, they have to know what numbers represent the letter grades. Traditionally,