Did you do matrices in high school math?

[Recursion]

I learned how to manipulate them, but we never learned how to apply them to linear equation systems (so there wasn't really much point until I got to Diff Eq in college, by which point I had forgotten everything).

Just curious if anybody else did that in high school; I'm trying to come up with a curriculum for a kid I'm tutoring.

[SwissTony]

1. I didn't do them in High School.

Didn't meet them until 1st year uni. We did complex numbers in HS. When I looked at my nephew's curriculum (30 years later), he was doing matrices but not complex numbers.

Great times.

[Recursion]

2. Euler advocated teaching complex numbers in primary school

I think there's some sense to that. And really it does make more sense to go into matrices already understanding complex variables.

[woodsprite]

3. Have you used Khan Academy on line?

That's what my son's tutor recommends. It's a great resource
for parents and students. His tutor found a way that he
gets notified of what videos or problems my son has
completed.

It's URL is www.khanacademy.com and it does render on
Mac or Pc.

Son is in 8th grade, but in 10th grade math. He's gotten to things
in his curriculum that hubby and I just don't remember how to do.
We contracted the tutor to keep help give him a running
start for the year and to work on test-taking strategies.
Even though he knows his stuff and gets great grades,
he totally freezes on his major tests.

Best of luck finding your answer. I'm dreading school
starting next week (up at 5:15, homework assignments
with little to no instructions, etc.)

[dr.strangelove]

4. Its been 25 years, but yes, we did them in high school calc

In college I think they were employed in Calc II and again in Diff EQ. But its been a real long time, so I might be remembering that wrong. I know they were introduced in HS because I can recall my HS AP Calc teacher writing them on the board. Sure glad I got that minor in math, I use it so frequently. I swear I should have minored in art and taken the classes with the nude models.

[surrealAmerican]

5. Not in high school ...

... not until graduate school, actually, but that was because I didn't have any math classes as an undergrad.

My kids did, though. Matrices were introduced in middle school math for them. There were a lot of changes for the better in math education in the intervening years.

[jakeXT]

6. It started with linear algebra in university for me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_algebra

[malthaussen]

7. Yep, algebra. 40 years ago.

Would have been done in 10th-11th grade public schools in my region back then.

-- Mal

[tjwmason]

8. Yes

I took Maths to A Level (English exams for 18 year-olds) and we did learn some stuff about matrices - I forget precisely what we covered, but I do remember wondering why we learnt them as I'm pretty sure we didn't learn any uses for them.

[Ron Obvious]

9. Hated them...

The concepts of cross and dot multiplication and all that are straightforward and simple, but I had to do hours of them in homework assignments in that class. Really, one of each would have been enough but we had to them over and over.

Linear Algebra, one of my least favourite classes ever. Nothing but busywork.

[Wounded Bear]

10. Yes...

but I did take some of the more advanced classes available in my school.

[LiberalEsto]

11. What is high school math?

I heard some vague rumor about it back in the late 60s, but I swear I don't remember a thing.

[Quantess]

12. Oh my gawd those were so hard!

I hated those, and I can't remember whether I really got it or not, after struggling. Those are horrible, that's all I remember about them.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. Yes, but I've totally forgotten what to do with them.