Let x be any number. Double the number, add 6, divide by 2, take away the number you started with, your answer is 3. Find x if y went to get groceries. Well, algebra make me want to put my fingers through my eye and swirl up my brain!
To be frank, X has always been causing nuisance ever since they started introducing the alphabets into the problems. It is the property of x to unveil its mystery to a chosen few. We have been in the same place once in our lives wondering why it is always x. Find x? Solve for x? If x is this find y? Until you find x the world doesn’t move. Why not y or z or the other 23 characters in the English alphabets.
The reason lies in the history. Algebra, as we know it today, was invented by the Arabs somewhere around the 9th century. All the theorems and derivations to find something unknown was written in Arabic. The mathematicians used the phrase “shayyanaan”, Arabic for something, to depict unknown values. Since then Al-Jabr (Algebra) has kindled an interest in mathematicians worldwide.
There came a time when westerners were introduced to the concept of Algebra by Persian travellers. Around the 11 century, the Spanish were the first who attempted to translate the theorems for better understanding. It so happens that the voice box of the western languages did not hold as many sounds as the Arabic did. The Spanish had a hard time translating “shayyanaan” because there was no alphabet in the Spanish dictionary to replace the “sh” syllable.
To overcome this problem the Spanish approached the Greek and borrowed one of their alphabets they thought was similar to “sh”. That alphabet was X pronounced as chi with a “ck” sound. When the Latinos started translating the Spanish version of algebra, they just replaced chi(X) with x (ks). This translation completely ignored the meaning of chi and since then x has been trapped in mathematics as the unknown variable.
So you see, it’s not really the fault of x, rather the lack of alphabets in the western dictionary.
