Hi,

All mathematicians use the order of operation in their work and in their everyday lives. So does every other person I know while dressing up in the morning:

Try the following operations:

1. Putting on pants
2. Putting on underwear

reverting the order in which they should really be done. A more scientific example is the encryption and authentification operations used in the everyday exchange of confidential information on the world wide web.

How about a shopping example. The store has a 10% discount on the ticket price of all items. You buy three items and go to the cashier. The cashier enters the three prices, finds a total, and then applies the 10% discount.

We do get a lot of questions from people picking up a specific point of the school curriculum and asking where it is used in everyday life. People are not as fussy about their food: ``How can I use the nutritional value of this broccoli in my everyday life? Give a list of occupations where the nutritional value of broccoli is useful...'' It is pointless to ask this type of question about every mouthful you take, and even more pointless to do the same with your school curriculum. School education, as a whole, is supposed to help you strenghten and develop your thought processes, so you are better prepared to analyse information and make important choices later in life. You should not look at it as a kind of driving school where all the information presented should serve a specific purpose in helping you to drive your car.

Claude

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