Did you know that we use algebra in our daily lives! And without even realising it! 
Indeed, in the morning, you can measure the time spent in the shower, preparing your breakfast or even driving to Mougins School!

Let’s understand, what is algebra? 
It is a branch of mathematics that helps represent problems or situations in the form of mathematical expressions.

Student - Why are there letters in Maths? Do we ever use algebra in real life ?

With algebra we solve problems when a few pieces of information are missing and those missing pieces of information are considered as unknowns (usually represented by letters), so there are as many unknowns (letters) as the number of missing pieces of information. 

In other words, Algebra is a tool used to solve mathematical problems by manipulating symbols and equations to find missing values.

Let’s try to understand it with a real life scenario: 
Helen has five times as many shoes as Jimmy. They have 42 pairs of shoes together. How many pairs of shoes does Helen have?

If we can calculate how many pairs of shoes Jimmy has, we can then find out how many pairs of shoes Helen has. So the missing information is the number of pairs of shoes for Jimmy - let’s call that x. 
According to the problem, the number of pairs of shoes Helen has is 5x. (5x means x multiplied by 5)

Between them, they have a total of 42 pairs of shoes, which means x+5x=42, which in turn gives us 6x=42. 
6 multiplied by 7 gives us 42, so x is 7 which is the number of pairs of shoes Jimmy has, which means that Helen has 35 pairs of shoes: lucky Helen! 

Real life applications- Algebra is used in various fields such as Engineering, Science, Finance, Economics, Sports...

Algebra is like a universally useful tool or a wizard's wand that can help deal with everyday problems. That is why it is very important that our students, here at Mougins School, are confronted with mathematical problem solving every day.
 

Geeta Gupta
Secondary Mathematics Teacher