Basic Algebra

Algebra introduces 'variables', which are letters that stand in for unknown numbers. The most common one is 'x'.

The goal is often to "solve for x". This means finding the value of x that makes an equation true.

Consider the equation:
x + 5 = 12

To solve for x, we want to get x by itself on one side of the equals sign. We can do this by performing the same operation on both sides. To get rid of the '+ 5', we subtract 5 from both sides:

x + 5 - 5 = 12 - 5
x = 7

This is the core of algebra! It's like a puzzle where you balance both sides of the equation.