02.01 Why is algebra important? – Resources for BC Math 10

(approximately 1 minute reading, 25 minute video, a ten minute article, a twenty minute puzzle and three ten to twenty minute review quizzes)

The term “Algebra” came from the Arabic word “Aljaber”, which means “restoring the broken”. The father of algebra is Alkhwarizmi, whose book is “Aljaber wa Almuqabala”, which meant “Restoring & Balancing”. It still means that today. This 25 minute online video tells about the origin of algebra and how it is used by people in their daily life.

The ability to look at patterns helped puzzlers recognize that the parachute for the Mars rover Perseverance had a code in it [Website article]. As a beginning algebra student, can you see how the code was hidden, using binary code [web page]?

Hint

Look at the easy to see capital letters like M, I and Y.

Hint 2

Only look at the last 5 numbers in the binary code

Solution

Although there are 7 spots for each letter on the parachute between each white section, only the last 5 digits of the binary code are shown. The first 3 digits that would show capital or lower case are just presented as beige 0s instead of orange 1s.

Simple algebra questions you should be able to solve (the checkmark will show you the answer):

More complex algebra questions you should be able to solve:

Challenging algebra questions you should be able to solve:

If you have difficulty on any of the simple or more complex algebra questions, you should review and practice using the resources below. If you have difficulty with the challenging questions, the other topics will have more review at the challenging level as it is considered the simple level for BC FMP 10.

Practice Resources

Math Aids is a free site for worksheets on which ads pay for the free resource. Be sure to click the button to add a key. Scroll down to hit the Create it button.On this Math Aids web page, you can choose worksheets to practice depending on which questions you had difficulty with from the above question levels:

writing variable expressions (simple #7 and more complex #4)
order of operations using algebra (simple #1 and more complex #1)
evaluating expressions using algebra (simple #4 & 5 and more complex #3)
the distributive property using algebra (simple #3 & 6)
combining like terms (simple #1 and more complex #1)

If you need more explanation than practice, look through Khan Academy’s Algebra Foundations online videos and practice elements. There is no need to watch every video, but you could click on the settings and watch the videos at a faster speed as a review. You could challenge the quizzes to see where you need more review. If even this seems too complicated, you may find it helpful to look at Khan Academy’s online videos and practice elements on preparing for algebra.

If you just want a bit more mixed practice, try these Kahoots:

For Teachers:
Algebra helps us generalize