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Sometimes boxes or shapes are used to indicate unknown values. As such, number sentences are used to introduce students to notions of structure and elementary algebra prior to a more formal treatment of these concepts. A number sentence without unknowns is equivalent to a logical proposition expressed using the notation of arithmetic.
A word equation is a formal equality:= = between a pair of words and , each over an alphabet comprising both constants (c.f. ) and unknowns (c.f. ). [1] An assignment of constant words to the unknowns of is said to solve if it maps both sides of to identical words.
The main property of linear underdetermined systems, of having either no solution or infinitely many, extends to systems of polynomial equations in the following way. A system of polynomial equations which has fewer equations than unknowns is said to be underdetermined.
Illustrations in Jade Mirror of the Four Unknowns Jia Xian triangle. Jade Mirror of the Four Unknowns, [1] Siyuan yujian (simplified Chinese: 四元玉鉴; traditional Chinese: 四元玉鑒), also referred to as Jade Mirror of the Four Origins, [2] is a 1303 mathematical monograph by Yuan dynasty mathematician Zhu Shijie. [3]
The system + =, + = has exactly one solution: x = 1, y = 2 The nonlinear system + =, + = has the two solutions (x, y) = (1, 0) and (x, y) = (0, 1), while + + =, + + =, + + = has an infinite number of solutions because the third equation is the first equation plus twice the second one and hence contains no independent information; thus any value of z can be chosen and values of x and y can be ...
However, if one searches for real solutions, there are two solutions, √ 2 and – √ 2; in other words, the solution set is {√ 2, − √ 2}. When an equation contains several unknowns, and when one has several equations with more unknowns than equations, the solution set is often infinite. In this case, the solutions cannot be listed.
For a system of linear equations, the number of equations in an indeterminate system could be the same as the number of unknowns, less than the number of unknowns (an underdetermined system), or greater than the number of unknowns (an overdetermined system). Conversely, any of those three cases may or may not be indeterminate.
That cannot be worked out by itself. If the son's age was made known, then there would no longer be two unknowns (variables). The problem then becomes a linear equation with just one variable, that can be solved as described above. To solve a linear equation with two variables (unknowns), requires two related equations.