That's an odd complaint to hear on a technology centered forum. The most obvious application for algebra should be thinking about data structures with their op

That's an odd complaint to hear on a technology centered forum. The most obvious application for algebra should be thinking about data structures with their operations. If you can't be sure about a method on a class being valid in terms of the contracts for that class (IE being a closed operation) then the method can't be public (usually an idea taught in "intro to OOP" style classes although with other words unless you're reading something like SICP.)