Algebra today is a branch of math in which abstract symbols are manipulated ... hieroglyphics referred to as “aha” to denote the unknown quantity in his algebraic problems.

Others have noted the similarities between the letter x and the common German mathematical symbol for the unknown, and have proposed that Descartes rendered that German symbol as an x.

This dispute is just one of many such little-known events; for example, another debate has been raging for centuries over who invented the symbol for zero, 0. In The Language of Mathematics ...

Similarly, in English, x represents the unknown, as in X-rays, which baffled their discoverer, and Malcolm X, who chose the symbol to represent ... the rules of algebra, mathematical variables ...

Algebra today is a branch of math in which abstract symbols are manipulated ... hieroglyphics referred to as “aha” to denote the unknown quantity in his algebraic problems.

The letter “x” often symbolizes something unknown, with an air of mystery ... Today, algebra is a branch of math in which abstract symbols are manipulated, using arithmetic, to solve different ...