[eli_gottlieb]

I think I've actually used the quadratic formula maybe twice outside of an academic math class in which the quiz question was designed to invoke the quadratic formula.

I'm a computer scientist, one of the more mathematical occupations.

I've never been in a life-or-death situation where I thought, "aha, thank God I memorized that formula in high school!". Also, I don't actually remember it anymore, other than "negative b plus or minus the square root of b squared minus four-a-c, all over two-a".

Well huh. I guess I do remember it, but apparently at a verbal-auditory level rather than visual-symbolic. As usual for me.

Still: I've never had occasion to use that recitation I just made.

[colomon]

1. I'm implemented the quadratic formula in software more than twice over the years, I think. In, you know, real programs I was paid money to write.

2. Have you ever been in a life-or-death situation where anything you learned in class in high school was useful to you? "Well, I would have died, but then I remembered that Julius Caesar's last three words were not actually 'Et tu, Brute!' according to Shakespeare..."

[vbuterin]

It's useful in "shoot a ball out of a cannon at 50 m/s at a 27' angle, how far does it go?" problems.