I used to be an engineer so I used algebra a lot. But now I am a trade union regional secretary (UK trade union regional secretary = US regional organizing director (note the proper use of = sign and parenthesis denoting my maths training)).

Anyway as a trade union official I use algebra in many ways. An example is to assess how we are doing in recruiting new members to the union. An example is below – though note the figures are made up for illustrative purposes only

My region had 130,000 members last year and in the 8 months to the end of July had 8,800 new members join. Last year we lost 13.5% of our members.

If our leavers’ rate for 2012 increases to 14% (due to the misguided austerity measures and public sector cuts of our incompetent government – but that’s another story) how many new members do we need to recruit in the period October – December to ensure our membership stays the same as it was at the start of the year?

You need algebra to solve this problem. If you are smart enough to do this in your head without writing it down – well done. But all you have done is to do algebra in your head.

Algebra is a set of tools for manipulating known and unknown numbers and it used everyday, in all walks of life.

To me it is somewhat akin to learning your scales when you learn a musical instrument. As a musician you may not ever play the scales in a performance but you sure as hell know that without knowing and practising them you’d be far less accomplished.