why do we pay college professors to study linear algebra when it's so easy?

Question

i m in 7th grade and my teacher just taught us about linear algebra and it s really easy. All you have to do is look at the slope and graph the line. Why do college professors get grant money to graph lines, anyone can do that.

Answer 1

What Grant said. Also, no one 'studies' linear algebra. We've known it for a very long time. The point of studying things is to discover new things. Here's a bunch of recent math and physics papers written by professors.



http://arxiv.org

Answer 2

You're in middle school so it's easier right now. But when you get to college you're going to be pulling your hair out over a linear algebra problem if you don't keep up or if you have trouble with math. You may not have trouble with math now but trust me there will be a time when you have trouble with math. It won't pretty.

University and college-level math is hard. Sometimes it takes up a page just to do one math problem even if the problem looks easy and if you mess up, you may have to re-start. You may not understand college now but you will.

Answer 3

You are incredibly uninformed. Middle/high school algebra is nowhere near as difficult as linear algebra. You need a calculus background to fully understand many aspects of it. The math progression is (generally) as follows:

middle school (or high school for some) algebra

high school geometry

Algebra 2 (which is more difficult than your algebra)

Precalculus (college algebra --much of what Algebra 2 is and Trigonometry)

Calculus I (differential calculus)

Calculus II (integral calculus)

Calculus III (vector calculus)

Discrete Math (introduction to proofs)

Linear Algebra I (using proofs)

Differential Equations

Linear Algebra II/other upper-division electives

Analysis/Abstract Algebra (this is where you learn why the assumptions you make in your high school - college algebra classes hold).



After this comes graduate-level courses. Here are some problems from a linear algebra I course for you to see: https://www.math.upenn.edu/ugrad/calc/m240/240la.pdf

Answer 4

You are just doing the basic basic stuff for linear algebra....it gets A LOT more complicated! Any may is easy in public school, it gets hard as you go on (if it didn't, why would they teach at a high school level and university level? If it was so easy, we would only have to take it in public school and NEVER take it again!).



Good luck,



Dal

Answer 5

In addition to the multiple variables that people have been talking about...

What happens when you stick a few imaginary numbers into the equation?



Wait until you get to Abstract Algebra! (Rings, Groups, Integral Domains, Modules, Galois Theory, Field Theory, etc.)



Then there's Discrete Mathematics, Number Theory, Differential Calculus, and Integral Calculus.



That gets you out of elementary mathematics and you can start working on the fun stuff!



Oh... before you get to do any of the above, you still have algebra (your teacher just showed you one application of algebra), geometry and trigonometry ahead of you.

Answer 6

There's a lot more to linear algebra than simple slope comparison....



What you have learned is a very simple application , usually called simultaneous equations, which is effectively finding where two lines meet.



But, how would you draw the situation when you have three variables and three equations (quickie answer is that you draw the lines in a three dimensional grid). But what about four variables? Or twenty variables(with twenty equations)?



Linear algebra proper is about the manipulation of matrices (which look like grids of numbers), and the use of vectors. And matrices can be "square" (same number of rows and columns) or not square (number of rows and columns differ), and can have more than two or three dimensions.



When working as a computer geek, I had real-life situations that required six and seven dimensions most of the time, and one where we had to deal with as many as 12 dimensions -- definitely NOT something as simple as slope and intersections...

Answer 7

College professors aren't the ones who study.

Answer 8

Sweetheart, university-level mathematicians are studying far more complex subjects than you will ever study in high school. When you get to college, you will realize just how much you embarrassed yourself with this question.

Answer 9

Maybe it's not as easy to everyone else.

Answer 10

Because other kids might not know how to do it and therefore need to be taught. Also, teachers need a job like everyone else in society to support and sustain themselves and their families financially otherwise they will be homeless on the streets.

Answer 11

Because they're better at drawing lines than you are.

Answer 12

Let us meet again when you are in college and I will be curious what you have to say at that time.

Answer 13

God damn it! My crappy school waited 'till year 11 to teach that! How the hell am I supposed to compete when they wait another 4 years before they taught any of us the same god damned thing! Why the hell did they wait until year 11! God damn them all to Hell!

Answer 14

Low they not be looking that they were who ,in the same ,course specialised,now you also seem to not hesitaste?!

Answer 15

Quite right. They should get a proper job.