[bluedays]

I believe this is actually a really great point. For instance, I didn't know that it was originally Brahmagupta who started using symbols in math. His initial use of symbols to represent numbers involved using color names like "blue" and "green".

More interestingly before using symbols as variables in math Egyptians were capable of doing Quadratic equations without these variables.

If I were teaching math today I would probably teach this. I would try to do algebra without using variables, and then I would use funny words like "blue" as Brahma Gupta use to. I think that this would probably stop a lot of the questions like "why are there letters in math!?"

[cabalamat]

> I think that this would probably stop a lot of the questions like "why are there letters in math!?"

Wouldn't people just instead ask "Why are there colours in maths?"?

I don't think that this:

    blue + blue = 2*blue

Is any more meaningful or edifying than:

    x + x = 2*x

[pca006132]

Yeah, I think the problem is not about variable names but giving meaning to these abstract objects. Beginners often have difficulty understanding abstract concepts and specific (concrete) examples are helpful for them to learn. I think 'Funny words' alone will not be helpful, or even detrimental to beginners' understanding as they may be distracted by unrelated concepts (e.g. what do you mean by adding blues together in this example?).

[bluedays]

Not if you show a really long example with algebra where you are not using any variables, and show how it can be simplified with variables.

[javajosh]

I don't recall where I read this, but a young Feynman motivated himself to learn trig by imagining that he had been challenged by a mysterious stranger to answer riddles. For example (I'm making this up) "You only have a protractor and the ability to measure your paces - tell me the height of that flagpole!" The operation, then, is to pace out a distance from the base of flagpole, sight down the protractor to the top of the flagpole to get an angle, and compute. (Since tan(y/x) = a, arctan(a) = y/x, y=x * arctan(a)). So the motivation was imaginary and concrete. And it's dramatic, because there's an obstacle, a chance of failure, and a chance for glory.

I can't help but see a parallel with magicians, who can dazzle us because they are willing to go further than most of us, in terms of practice. In the same way, math gives you the ability to dazzle with surprising answers, to do a lot with a little.

[elliekelly]

I think they’re doing this more in schools. I was helping a first grader with homework recently and I was surprised the math worksheet was essentially simple algebra but with a shape or a little picture to represent the variable instead of a letter:

> 3 + circle = 7

> 10 - cloud = 4

It seems like a perfectly reasonable exercise for a first grader. Clouds and puppy faces and circles. But I have to admit if I’d seen “x” in place of the symbols I’m not sure I would’ve thought it was so reasonable.

[taneq]

The introductory arithmetic I've seen recently even kind of flips it around and defines subtraction in terms of algebra. "7 - 5 = ?" is presented as "5 plus what equals 7?"

[whatshisface]

That's how subtraction is actually defined, so that's not a bad idea.