FYI -- some thoughts from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/weekinreview/12mcne.html?scp=12&sq=algebra... December 12, 2004 "In the 1986 movie, 'Peggy Sue Got Married,' Kathleen Turner, an unhappily married wife and mother, magically returns to relive her senior year as the most popular girl at Buchanan High." "She leaves a math test blank, and when her teacher (described in the screenplay as 'an officious little creep') demands an explanation, answers: 'Mr. Snelgrove, I happen to know that in the future, I will never have the slightest use for algebra. And I speak from experience.' " http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C06E1DC1E3FE63BBC4E51DFB3... May 26, 1878 "Horse Feeding by Algebra" http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A07E5DB163EE033A2575AC2A9... April 29, 1904 "A correspondent of our neighbor The Sun has just been 'appalled,' he says, by the discovery that algebra is taught to children in the public schools of this city. This dismal fact, hitherto carefully concealed from him, he explosively divulges to a world which he obviously expects to share his own horror, for he asserts as a self-evident truth that the teaching of algebra is 'a real cruelty to the child--besides being a waste of time.' " http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9402E2DC1330E132A25754C1A9... January 17, 1901 "TOO MUCH MATHEMATICS" "Isaac Levene Demonstrated by Algebra that He Did Not Owe for a Meal" "Isaac Levene of 82 West Ninetieth Street ate 90 cents' worth of food in a Sixth Avenue restaurant yesterday afternoon. When the check was presented to him he made a mathematical problem of it, and after figuring it out by algebra, arrived at the conclusion that he owed nothing. He tried to demonstrate his process to the waiter, but the waiter did not understand algebra, and called the proprietor of the restaurant, with whom Levene went over his figures, but even the proprietor could not get the thing right, and called in a policeman. Levene labored with the policeman for a brief time, but the latter knew less about algebra than either of the others, and took Levene to the Jefferson Market Police Court." " 'It's a simple algebraic problem, Judge,' said Levene to Magistrate Flammer, when asked why he did not pay the 90 cents. If I ate an amount equal to 2 X plus 3 Y, and afterward it was said it was equivalent to 4 XZY minus 3 XZ, then by equation I would be found to own nothing.' " "The Magistrate concluded that there was something defective in Levene's reasoning, and sent him to Bellevue to be examined." At 08:17 PM 11/11/2008, Fred lunnon wrote:

As I waited at the checkout of our local wholefood shop, a lady who I know to be both literate and equipped with a technical background --- besides a number of other attributes which, though perhaps not immediately relevant to the discussion, hardly serve to encourage coherent impromptu cogitation on the part of an elderly academic --- conveyed to me an enquiry posed by her teenage daughter, along the lines of:

"You're a mathematician" (always an ominous opener, I have observed) "--- what's the use of algebra?"

I think I did eventually manage to marshall a reasonably convincing reply. But I wondered what would other people here have told her?

Fred Lunnon