GUESSING YOUR AGE
Using algebraic language, explain why this happens. Answer
It's not only tricky to teach – pupils often simply don't see the point of algebra. Maths teacher Jonny Heeley gives an algebra masterclass to an audience of year 10 students from three London schools and starts by amazing them when he correctly guesses their birthdays.
In several Mathematical situations we need to work with unknown numbers. In these situations, we use letters instead of numbers. We call these letters variables. Then these letters have the same operation properties as numbers. We can use them:
- To express any number, for example: even numbers “2·n”.
- To generalize numerical properties or relationships, for example: addition commutative property “a+b = b+a”
- To express and work with unknown numbers or formulas.
- To express the general term of a sequence.
- To codify a problem mathematically and make its resolution easier, for example: "After 15 years, John will be the double of age than today"
x+15 = 2·x → x = 15 John is 15 years old
