MEPX
Chapter 10 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Why letters
  2. 2Rearranging
  3. 3Expanding and factorising
  4. 4Straight lines
  5. 5Quadratics
  6. 6Fractions and powers
  7. 7Two unknowns
  8. 8Inequalities
  9. 9Functions
  10. 10Turning words into algebra

Chapter 10 of 10

Turning words into algebra

The part that feels hardest.

A method

Name the unknown, write what you know as equations, solve, then check the answer against the original sentence rather than your working.

  • Units are a check: if they do not match on both sides, something is wrong.
  • Draw a sketch even for non-geometric problems; it exposes relationships.

Why it pays

Every spreadsheet formula, budget model and physics problem is this same translation. Algebra is the language for describing how quantities depend on each other.