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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Editor’s collection of notes:
Algebra
definition of algebra
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1. the mathematics of working with variables; solving for unknowns
2. provides tools to help solve problems by helping us to generalize, to view data in non-specific way, to find patterns and regularity, allowing for predictions
3. why work with variables? Because in problem-solving, by definition, we seek for the value of an unknown
4. algebra helps us to hypothesize a pattern, generalize our view of data, a sliding scale of answers depending on the values we plug into the variables
5. "can you solve part of the problem?" algebra allows us to state as much of the solution as we might apprehend but uses unknowns, variables, to speak of the parts we don't know
6. algebra is not memorizing a formula to "get the answer" but a system of thought focusing on problem-solving, of how to extract information from the seemingly formless data
7. al-jabr, lit., the "reduction" (1551); another source says the Arabic words means "equals can be added to both sides of an equation"; still another says it means "transpose."
8. uses all the basic functions of arithemetic but injects the element of the unknown in terms of a symbol, often, x
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