Windows Student Version 2.2 1993

Problem parsing equation as input to FindRoot, if I type the equation everything works, if I use the equation as a variable from a table it fails. Solve this by making the equations set to zero and extracting the lhs.

More mathematica memory bullshit.
f16[p_] : = p[[2]][[1]]; extracts equation
but
f17[p_] := FindRoot[ p[[2]][[1]], [x,Random[Real,{-2,2}]} ]
fails.

Solve this problem by making a module and using local variables, but the problems continued. Two hours after start and I have just continued to encounter problems - why use mathematica?

For example now the output does not just produce a table but a list of error messages and the whole table as part of the input. How now do I suppress the input! As usual mathematica sux.

For each problem that I solve another appears, and Mathematica is consistantly doing this. I am using a very old version, but ultimately how data structures are passed/used by other parts of mathematica was not well thought out at 1993.