Quotes About Algebra

When I went into the seminary, I was one of those victims of New Math and had not had Algebra I and had no idea what we were doing in New Math in the ninth grade. But when I went into the seminary, they had gone the traditional route and taught first-year algebra.

Max looked startled at her question, like a kid who had just arrived in class to discover there was an algebra test he hadn't studied for.

Algebra is my favorite subject...because you can replace my X without asking me Y.

When I was at school, I was terrible at algebra and arithmetic, but I was always the best at English and literature. And acting, of course.

Theo explained, in what he thought was perfect Spanish, that Julio needed extra help with his algebra. Evidently, she did not understand perfect Spanish because she asked Julio what Theo was talking about.

I can explain to you why algebra is useful. But that is not what algebra is really for.' He moved his fingers gently on my temples. 'It's to keep what is in here healthy. PE for the head. And the great thing is you can do it sitting down.

Grandad taught me that the alien signs and symbols of algebraic equations were not just marks on paper. They were not flat. They were three-dimensional, and you could approach them from different directions, look at them from different ways, stand them on their heads. You could take them apart and put them back together in a variety of shapes, like Legos. I stopped being scared of them.

What was your job back on Earth? I've always been curious. I taught eighth-grade math in Tallahassee. Huh, I said. That's not what I expected. Are you kidding? Powell said back. You try teaching algebra to a bunch of little shitheads for thirty-eight years straight. The way I figure it I've got about another decade before my rage from that gets entirely burned up.

There are 3 most common lies that you will hear: 1) I love you. 2) We will be together forever. 3) You will use algebra in real life.

The second basic function of algebra is to convert expressions into more useful ones. Gauss's

Dear Algebra, stop asking me to find your X. She's never coming back and don't ask Y.

Not every calculator integrate and differentiate.

The most important use to which he had put his memory was that he had stuffed an unprecedented number of mathematical constants and equations into it. Most of us have very few mathematical constants in our mind, perhaps only the up-to-twelve-times multiplication table. Johnny had put in his mind layers and layers of algebraic verities. These were the explanation of his extraordinary powers of mental calculation.

In particular, the three roots to a cubic polynomial either must all be real, or there must be one real root and one conjugate pair.

mean proportional, i.e., if b and c are two given positive numbers, then x is the mean proportional of b and c if it satisfies the statement "b is to x as x is to c." Or, in algebra which

for the irreducible case with all three roots real, there is just one positive root; that is, the root given by the Cardan formula

The breakthrough for came not from quadratic equations, but rather from cubics which clearly had real solutions but for which the Cardan formula produced formal answers with imaginary components.