What in the hell is algebra?

Answer 1

Algebra (from Arabic: الجبر, al-ğabr) is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of structure, relation and quantity. Elementary algebra is often taught in secondary education and gives an introduction to the basic ideas of algebra: studying what happens when numbers are added or multiplied, and how to make polynomials and find their roots.

Algebra is much broader than elementary algebra and can be generalized. Rather than working directly with numbers, one can work with symbols, variables, or elements of some set. Addition and multiplication are viewed as general operations, and their precise definitions lead to structures such as groups, rings and fields.

Together with geometry and analysis, algebra is one of the three main branches of mathematics.

Hope this helps buddy.
-chad

Answer 2

Heh... don't you love it when two different people both copy the same Wikipedia article? ;-)

Anyway, algebra is a form of "symbolic deduction." Given one or more pieces of information, you use a set of known "rules" and processes to deduce some other piece of information that you want.

A way-too-simple example: This year your website sold 400 t-shirts. That's twice as many as last year. How many t-shirts did your website sell last year?

Obviously, of course, the answer is 200 - I've picked an example so easy that you can find the answer in your head. But here's how it would look as algebra:

Let x stand for the number of t-shirts sold last year. The statement "400 t-shirts this year is twice as many as last year" can then be written as an equation: 2x = 400 (where "2x" means two times x).

We divide both sides of the equation by 2, which gives us x = 200, which of course is the right answer.

What makes algebra useful, of course, is when the answers aren't so easy to find in your head, because more steps are involved or the numbers are harder to work with.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

Algebra is based on the idea that a polynomial equation of degree n has n roots in the complex numbers. (Some of those roots might be pure reals, but a real number is a complex number whose imaginary component is zero.) In algebra class, you get taught methods of finding those roots, plus some spinoff stuff like what matricies are for. But, briefly put, algebra is the math pertaining to polynomials.

y = a + b x + c x^2 + d x^3 ...

Answer 4

Algebra is a branch of mathematics in which symbols, usually letters of the alphabet, represent numbers or members of a specified set and are used to represent quantities and to express general relationships that hold for all members of the set.

Answer 5

Algebra is hell!

Answer 6

Algebra is making an equation derived from a real problem; solving the problem; interpret the answer(s).
Algebra is about structures as complex numbers, rings, modulo, ... .

Answer 7

Algebra is a mathematical formula that one would use to figure out a mathematical problem. It's a type of math that one would learn in highschool.

Answer 8

Algebra=Hard math that we never need to use in real life but which they make us learn in high school & college. =)

Answer 9

You're stupid! (No offense)
According to my sixth grade math book,
Algebra is a written langauge of letters and numbers, where the letters stand for numbers.
Those are variables.

Answer 10

It's a type of mathmatics and it's not easy to learn.

That's as simple as I can put it and I might add I didn't like it myself.