INTRODUCTION
What is algebra? You may associate it with solving equations such as 2x + 7 = 19. However, both the history of algebra and the way that it's taught today show that algebra is much more. For thousands of years, people solved algebraic problems without symbols such as x and +. By the 9th century, people including the Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī had popularized the idea of using an algorithm (a set of well-defined instructions) to determine unknown quantities. In fact, the word algebra comes from the Arab word al-jabr, meaning “the reduction,” from the title of al-Khwārizmī's most famous mathematical text, Kitāb al-jabr wa al-muqābalah. Symbolic notation didn't become widespread until European mathematicians ...
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