ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Symbolic method

Have you ever tried to solve a math problem and wished you could make things easier? Well, that's where the symbolic method comes in!

Instead of using numbers and trying to work out a problem the long and hard way, we can use letters to represent those numbers. This means we can solve more complex problems with ease.

For example, imagine you have a bag with some apples in it. We don't know how many apples there are, but we can use the letter "a" to represent the number of apples. So instead of thinking about actual apples, we can think of them as the letter "a".

Now, let's say we know we have two more apples than our friend who has five apples. We can write this as a = 2 + 5, since "a" represents the number of apples we have and we know it's two more than five.

This is the symbolic method! We are using letters to represent unknown values in a problem, making it easier to work out the solution.
Related topics others have asked about: