I would like to apologize for the misinformation I posted previously.  I
had heard it elsewhere, and either I am paraphrasing it incorrectly, or
the source was incorrect.  In either case, I doubt the Algebra was the
highest math class taught at Harvard only 50 years ago ('a few' = 3 to 4,
so 4*12=48 ~= 50).

In the mid 1600s Lacroix's (french) text book on differential and integral
math was translated by some british folk for their universities.  Harvard,
having been established in the early 1600's, probably would have begun
teaching differential and integral math shortly thereafter.  Algebra was
not well established at that time, but it was more developed than diff.
eq., and so I would presume that they would have been teaching lower
classes in algebra much earlier than the previous century (or this
century, depending on whether you start from 0 or 1 ;-)

However, my point still holds, but I would probably use a different
analogy now, such as the transister and its associated math (which is now
taught in high school for those interested), etc.

-Adam

Interesting math bit found during my research:
... it is said that he [Charles Babbage] sent the following letter to
Alfred, Lord Tennyson about a couplet in "The Vision of Sin":

     Every minute dies a man,
     Every minute one is born

I need hardly point out to you that this calculation would tend to keep
the sum total of the world's population in a state of perpetual equipoise,
whereas it is a well-known fact that the said sum total is constantly on
the increase. I would therefore take the liberty of suggesting that in the
next edition of your excellent poem the erroneous calculation to which I
refer should be corrected as follows:

     Every minute dies a man,
     And one and a sixteenth is born

I may add that the exact figures are 1.167, but something must, of course,
be conceded to the laws of meter.
Charles Babbage and his Calculating Engines

Only an engineer... ;-)

"M. Adam Davis" wrote:
>
> It was only a few dozen years ago that the highest math class taught at
> Harvard was Algebra.  We now teach algebra to our 12-year olds in school.

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