Remember algebra?

I know, I know, it was probably a long time ago. But think back for a minute. Remember the X and Y axes and graphing a straight line, then trying to calculate its "slope"? You know, the change in Y over the change in X? Rise over run?

The formula: y=mx+b?

Yeah, that sounds familiar, right? Where 'm' is the slope of the line and 'b' is the intercept on the vertical axis? Right.

Well not in Dubai.

Yep, I kid you not, even the slope-intercept form is different here. Well, to be fair, it turns out that kind of the US is different from the rest of the world on this one, too. Similar to how we don't use the metric system and think that the war in Iraq was a good idea. In that vein.

See, instead of Advance Placement that the US uses, the rest of the world has the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, or IB for short. And they, meaning everyone else in the world, call that familiar formula y=a+bx.

The first time I heard this was in Econ class last spring, and for a minute I was really confused. I mean, sure I haven't taken a math class in the better part of thirteen years, but was I that wrong to think that the formula was y=mx+b?

Luckily the American who was sitting next to me had some international math-type experience or something, and clued me in. If not I might still be confused to this day.