ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Free algebra

Free algebra is like playing with blocks. You know how you can stack different shapes and colors to build whatever you want? Well, in free algebra, we use letters and numbers instead of blocks.

Now, let's say you have the letter x and the number 3. You can put them together to make something like x+3. This is called an expression because it shows two things combined.

But wait, there's more! You can do different things with expressions, like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing them. And just like with blocks, you can rearrange expressions in different ways to get new ones.

So, free algebra is all about using letters and numbers to make expressions and then manipulating those expressions to find new ones. It's like a big puzzle that you can solve in many different ways.