Algebra I All-in-One For Dummies

Introduction

“ What is algebra?” “Is it really that important in the study of other math courses?” “Where did it come from?” And my favorite question from students: “What do I need this for?”

Algebra is really the basis of most courses that you take in high school and college. You can’t do anything in calculus without a good algebra background. And there’s lots of algebra in geometry. You even need algebra in computer science! Algebra was created, modified, and continues to be tweaked so that ideas and procedures can be shared by everyone. With all people speaking the same “language,” there are fewer misinterpretations.

Algebra, or al-jabr in Arabic, means “a reunion of broken pieces.” How appropriate!

About This Book

This book covers just about everything you’d ever want to know about basic algebra. And it provides opportunities for further discoveries. You’ll find explanations, examples, practice opportunities, and problems to test your comprehension. This book starts with basic operations and terminology, gives you information on simplifying and organizing expressions, runs through equation-solving, introduces applications, and goes visual with the graphing. When finished, you should:

• Be familiar with notation and terminology.
• Have confidence in finding the correct answer.
• Look forward to more challenges with Algebra II and other courses.

Each new topic provides:

• Example problems with answers and solutions.
• Practice problems with answers and solutions.

Each chapter ...