# It only took 340 years, but I finally used something I learned in high school **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 11, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857 "2016-04-11T02:12:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/1 "2016-04-11T02:12:03Z")
Maybe 35 years. I don’t really remember if chemistry was junior or senior year. My daughter needed help balancing a chemical equation. So there you have it kids. You may someday need all that stuff they teach you to help your own kids one day. Still waiting to share “Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” ETA: Wow. What a typo… Can I get a passing mod to fix the title? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/2 "2016-04-11T02:20:11Z")
And then someday she can pass the knowledge on to her children when they take high school chem exams. And down through the generations… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/3 "2016-04-11T02:35:30Z")
**It only took 350 years …** The basics of alchemy are _always_ useful. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/4 "2016-04-11T03:53:38Z")
I kinda like the thread title just as it is. It helps make OP’s point! ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/5 "2016-04-11T04:35:32Z")
If you’d become a chemist, it probably would have been useful as well. If you’d never learned it, you’d likely never had had a chance to consider chemistry as a career. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/6 "2016-04-11T12:03:43Z")
Nah, leave the typo in the title. It underlines the fact that you haven’t needed the math you learned at all. For me, the phrase that remains starkly clear in my memory is something I learned in driver’s ed: A rain is most dangerous when it has just begun. I couldn’t wait for my son to start his driving lessons so I could hit him with it. He was highly, highly impressed, in the way that only a teenage boy can be with his mother. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-only-took-340-years-but-i-finally-used-something-i-learned-in-high-school/751857/7 "2016-04-11T12:07:00Z")
Maybe you should let someone else help her with the math problems. 😉