'Algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols; it is a unifying thread of almost all mathematics'.
Algebra is just rules you can apply to solve different logical problems.
An example of a problem is as follows: You order 3 paper plates for every person coming to a party and you order 10 extra paper plates just in case any go missing. To find out how many paper plates you end up having, you can put this information into an expression which will look like this:
3x+10 (x is the number of people that come to the party, 3 is the sets of 3 paper plates you multiply by the value of x and 10 is the 10 extra paper plates you order just in case.)
26 people turn up at the party, now you can put this expression into action:
1. First you multiply the number of people coming to the party (x) by 3 to determine how many paper plates you'll have based on turnout, you will need 78 plates.
2. You now have to add the ten extra plates, using this algebraic expression you now know you'll need 88 plates for the party.
Anatomy of an expression:
The variable is an unknown value which we assign a value to, whilst it has no value it gets replaces with something such as x or y.
The coefficient is placed in front of the variable to represent a multiple value, in this case, whatever x becomes will be multiplied by the coefficient which is 4 (you also saw a coefficient in the paper plate example).
The constants are exactly what they say they are, they're constant in value and never change.
The equation can also be broken down into 2 expressions, these expressions determined by what side of the equal side they are (4x-7 and 5 are individual expressions in this case).
This can be broken down even further, you can separate expressions into terms using any operators (+ or -) present (4x, 7 and 5 are the 3 terms here).
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