Chapter 8
Three Skills For Algebra
Previous Chapter: (A) Arithmetic
Review Problems for calculus and senior high school students. (B) About
this and the next 4 chapters.
Talking about three skills and illustrating them with examples may be enough
to go from a mastery of arithmetic to a mastery of algebra. In learning to talk,
write, argue and possibly do arithmetic, we have mastered harder skills. In
elementary school, we mastered the first two skills: the ability to talk about
numbers and quantities and the ability to describe calculations. The third skill
depends on the first two. The three skills are as follows.
- First, we can talk about numbers and quantities without doing any
arithmetic. For instance, numbers and quantities may be big, small,
known, measured, never known, changing or unchanging, private, top-secret,
confidential, embarrassing, or simply forgotten. A number, measurement or
quantity may be known to you but not to me. We can speak about numbers and
quantities in many ways. Talking about numbers and quantities is an ability
we all have.1 It is a
part of mathematics that does not require us to do arithmetic. There is
more to mathematics than just doing arithmetic carefully.
- Second, we can describe calculations which we want to do or avoid or
have someone else do, without doing any arithmetic. The description
gives a recipe or a formula for doing a calculation. The description can be
done with words alone or with shorthand notation. This shorthand notation is
worth a thousand words.2
The first service of mathematics to other subjects lies in the description
of calculations that can be done or repeated as needed. There is more to
mathematics than just doing arithmetic well.
- Third, we can change the way numbers and quantities are computed (or
measured). Rules or properties of arithmetic tell us when different
calculations or measurements give the same result. (These rules are
described using shorthand notation. That gives a second role to the
shorthand notation.) In the computation of numbers and quantities, we may
replace a calculation by another, when both give the same result. And in the
description of calculations, we may replace a calculation by a shorthand
symbol that represents its result, and vice-versa. These replacement ideas,
illustrated below with examples, allows us to compute or describe different
ways to calculate a single number or quantity.3
Algebra or the manipulation of formulas is concerned with the shorthand
description of different computations and with when one description can
replace another. Description of one calculation can replace the description
of another in any circumstance where the two calculations give the same
result. Such replacements can be made one at a time, or one after another.
There is more to mathematics than just doing arithmetic or being
given a formula and numbers to use in it.
The description of calculations that might be done is a first service of
mathematics to other subjects. The creation of new calculations by changing old
ones is a second service to all subjects using arithmetic. Mathematics after
arithmetic is based on the above three skills and the ability to read exactly
rules, patterns and definitions. For the latter, see the previous chapters on
logic.
Notes
- The first skill, our ability to talk about numbers and quantities, is
widely known. We can say whether or not a number is known, forgotten,
unknown, small, large, changing or varying, constant or unchanging,
confidential and so on. Thus we can talk about and describe numbers and
quantities. This can be done before the very visible, but sometimes
misunderstood, symbols, letters and written shorthand of algebra, is
introduced. Talking about numbers and quantities represents a easily-spoken
element of algebraic thought apart from the algebraic way of writing and
recording such thoughts.
- A number or quantity which may change in the circumstances of interest to
us is called a variable. The
common idea that all variables have to be given by letters has mislead many.
As just suggested, talking about variables, that is numbers or quantities
which may change or vary, can be done without from any reference to letters
and symbols. That is the notion of a variable can be clarified or explained
before any linkage to algebraic shorthand or symbols used to write and
record calculations and further parts of algebraic thought.
- 2 How to
compute the area of a rectangle can be described with words alone or with a
formula A = WL. In contrast, the compound interest formula A
= P(1+i)n and even more so, the quadratic
formula
describe calculations in a algebraic and symbolic way. It would be a horrible
exercise to describe what these formulas mean, do and represent with words
alone and no symbols.
Next Chapter: 9 How to Talk or Describe Numbers and
Quantities (Words before Symbols), a new topic in understanding and
explaining mathematics, a new topic to make learning and teaching simpler and
clearer.
See too: What is A Variable
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Three Skills
For
Algebra
understanding & explaining
Reason and Math
Volume 2
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-9697564-2-9
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Chapters and Appendices
Home
Postscript: The 4-th Skill For Algebra
Foreword
1. Introduction
2. Implication Rules
3. Chains of Reason
4. Romeo and Juliet
4. Induction Mathematical
5 Knowledge Islands
6 Old Language
7 Arith Skill Check
7. The Next Chapters
8 The Three Skills
8 VNR-Concise-Encyclopedia
PS. What is a Variable
9. Algebra Talk
10 Two More Skills
11 Why Shorthand
12 Shorthand Usage
13 What's Next
14 Compound Interest
15 Linear Equations
PS I. Distributive Law
PS II. Polynomials
16 Painless Proofs
17 Pythagoras
18 Rules of Algebra
19 Functions & Sets
20 Degrees & Radians
21 What's Next
22. Arith & Geometric Sums
23 Summation Notation
24 Your Money
25 Induction & Recursion
26 What's Next
27 Pronouns in Logic
28 Occurrence Tables
29 Contrapositive
30 Truth Tables
31 Indirect Reason
A. Advice For Learning
Words Before Symbols:
What is a Variable?
Introduction
Variation between Examples
Variation of Letters
A letter denotes a variable
Cases of Double Variation
Three Notions of a Variable
Constants, Parameters
& Variables
Talking about numbers
Dependent
or Independent
Variable, a Matter of Choice
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