Video: Why Algebra Is Important in Marine Biology

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In marine biology, algebra is important because it is used to conduct measurements and test water and sand levels. Find out how to use dimensional analysis in marine biology with help from a math teacher in this free video on basic math lessons.

- Factoring Cubes

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Tulimalefo'i May 05, 2011
very helpful and informative..check it out.

Video Transcript

So why is algebra important in Marine Biology? Hi, I'm Jimmy Chang I've been teaching college mathematics for nine years and the answer to that questions is well, you can't have math without science and you can't have science without math. So algebra plays a very important part in areas such as Marine Biology. And we're here to explore just a couple of things just to give you a glimpse as to how it's used. Now, one example of how algebra is used in Marine Biology is measurement. A lot of times in Marine Biology you have to conduct a lot of measurements, whether to test water levels, sand levels, etcetera. But measurement is a huge component of Marine Biology. And if you didn't know how to measure then it would be very very counterproductive. Now, along with measurement you also have to take in to account dimensional analysis. Dimensional analysis is the ability to convert from one unit to another. Now, as you know in the United States we use the English system. Other parts of the world use the metric system so it's very important if you are conducting research, and especially with folks from other countries, it's very important that you take your units and convert them to the appropriate system, whether it be from English to metric or metric to English system. So, dimensional analysis is a huge part of how algebra is important in Marine Biology. Now, lastly you use algebra to plug into formulas to figure out things such as size. A whale for instance, if you wanted to measure a whale that's live, the whale's not going to sit still for you to measure it, nine times out of ten. So it's very important that you use the formula that determines the size of a whale for example and plug in to determine the actual sizes. And you would do that for similar living organisms as well. But basically these are just a few glimpses as to how algebra is used in Marine Biology. I'm Jimmy Chang.

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Why Algebra Is Important in Marine Biology

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