ADAM CLEMENTS – SME 430 – Discussion Post #8 – 3/23/2010

Complete the readings for this week and then post your reflections to the prompts below:

Writing Algebra with Symbols

• What is your own definition/description of algebra?

o A part of mathematics that uses letters or symbols to represent quantities.
• Is there a formal definition of algebra? (If so, what?)
o A question about numerical operations and relations in which an unknown
quantity must be deduced from known ones.
o www.m-w.com defines algebra as the following:
 1 : a generalization of arithmetic in which letters representing numbers are
combined according to the rules of arithmetic

 2 : any of various systems or branches of mathematics or logic concerned

with the properties and relationships of abstract entities (as complex
numbers, matrices, sets, vectors, groups, rings, or fields) manipulated in
symbolic form under operations often analogous to those of arithmetic —
compare boolean algebra
• What are the characteristics of algebra that distinguish it from other branches of
mathematics?
o It’s a simple universal language (if all symbols are understood by the reader)
where as something like logic requires more knowledge of content to understand
what the question is even asking.
o Symbolic symbols are used and rhetorical style is not used as it still is in other
forms of math.
o In an algebra problem, regardless of how it’s written, is a question about
numerical operations and relations in which an unknown quantity must be
deduced from known ones.

• How is a symbolic style different from a rhetorical style in algebra? Give an example of
each, and state one advantage of each approach.
o Symbolic style
 The style of algebra that we are more commonly familiar with today
 x – 5x + 7x = √x +6
3 2

 Advantage: takes up less space, more precise, less confusing, follows

universal language of math, can represent more than one unknown
o Rhetorical style
 Uses words to write the equation
 The cube and seven things less five squares is equal to the root of six more
than the thing.
 Advantage: You need to understand what the symbols mean and any one
who knows the language should be able to read it and understand what
you are trying to say.
Solving First Degree Equations

• Solve the following problem using the false position method: A quantity and its fifth
becomes 24
o x + 1/5x = 24
o say it’s 5, so 5+1= 6
o so we got 6 and we 24 so we need to multiply by 4
o so (5)(4) = 20 and (20) + (1/5)(20) = 24 so x = 20
• Solve this same problem using the traditional algorithm: A quantity and its fifth
becomes 24
o x + 1/5x = 24
o 6/5x = 24
o x = (24)(5/6) = 20
• How is the mathematics used in these two solutions the same? Different?
o Same:
 You get the same solution
 You are using standard algorithms of multiplication and addition
o Different:
 The first method allowed for simpler computations and using smaller
numbers, but uses trial and error. The second uses a more direct path, but
you have to have more complicated and larger number and complication.
• Will the false position method work for all first degree algebraic problems? How do
you know?
o Yes, but it only works if the equation is Ax+B. If instead the equation were Ax
+C = B, the it is no longer true that multiplying x by a factor causes B to change
by the same factor, and this simple version of the method breaks down. We might
try subtracting C from both sides, but that isn’t always as easy as it sounds,
because the expression on the left side might initially be very complicated, and
finding the correct constant to subtract would require us to simplify it to the form
Ax +C.
• Create your own double false position problem and solve it . Be sure to include your
original problem that you started with as well as a description of all the steps to took to
solve it.
o A bowl of 200 grapes is divided among four friends, A, B, C, and D, so that B has
3 more grapes than A, and C has 3 times as many as B, and D has the same as A.
o 200 = A + B + C + D
o 200 = x + (x+3) + 3(x+3) + x
o So I guess x = 20
o So A has 20, B has 23, C has 69, and D has 20 which added up is 132 so we are
off by 32.
o So we guess lower, x = 15
o So A has 15, B has 18, C has 54 and D has 15 which added up is 102 so we are
still wrong and off by 2
o 20 32
X
15 2
o 20 x 2 = 40
o 15 x 32 = 480
o 480 – 40 = 440 / (132-102) = 14.66666
o So person A gets 14 and 2/3 grapes