Welcome to the introduction to algebra. In this deck, you'll learn the basics of one of the most important topics in maths. We'll discover what letters in maths mean, how to understand algebraic language, and how to tidy up, or simplify, algebraic expressions.

So, what is algebra? At its heart, it's about using letters to stand for numbers. Think of a letter like 'x' or 'y' as a mystery box. We don't know what number is inside it yet, but we can still work with it. This is useful when a value can change, or when we need to find an unknown number to solve a puzzle.

In algebra, we build things up from smaller pieces called 'terms'. A term is a single number, or a single letter, or numbers and letters multiplied together. For example, 7 is a term. 'x' is a term. And '5x', which means 5 times x, is also a term.

When we string terms together with plus or minus signs, we create an 'expression'. For example, '4x plus 3' is an expression. It doesn't have an answer, it's just a statement. But if we put an equals sign in, it becomes an 'equation'. An equation says that two things are equal. For instance, '4x plus 3 equals 11' is an equation.