Why Do Math with Letters?

Why Do Math with Letters? — page 1

Why Do Math with Letters? — page 2 — W hen you think about mathematics you probably think about a class at school where you do calculations and answer word problems But have you ever thought about math being all around you It’s in every shape and pattern you see It’s in every song you hear It’s in every game you play and any puzzle you solve The first mathematicians realized this and they looked for ways to prove it to show how order and reason could explain much about life as they knew it Sometimes this was easy to do But other times people just didn’t get it Even some of the most intelligent people in history have struggled with math Albert Einstein once wrote to a child Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics I can assure you mine are still greater So how can you use whatever you know about math in everyday life When you collect like objects as you clean your room distribute papers to your classmates or simplify a big project into smaller steps you are us ing math In such cases you are using a type of math known as algebra This branch of mathematics is concerned with interpreting math sentences so that you can find a specific unknown quantity Why do the letters of algebra work so well with numbers 5

Why Do Math with Letters? — page 3 — THE ART OF ALGEBRA MATHEMATICIAN MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-KHWARIZMI ADVANCED ALGEBRAIC STUDY ONCE YOU STARTED GETTING THE HANG OF ADDITION subtraction multiplication and division with numbers your teach er probably threw you a curveball all of a sudden there were letters in your homework If you have never seen such an equation here is an example 4 3x 1 14 What was your reaction the first time you saw something like that You may have thought you were seeing things Perhaps your teacher had written a crooked plus sign Maybe you were just confused Sometimes problems that use variables which are letters that represent unknown quantities can look like a strange language How are you supposed to know what to do with them Your teacher would tell you not to worry there are rules that 4 3X-1 14 6

Why Do Math with Letters? — page 4

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