Why do we use letters like x and y to represent numbers in algebra?
In: Mathematics
Essentially, Descartes used them in a very influential book and they caught on. See [https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/8109/why-are-x-and-y-commonly-used-as-mathematical-placeholders](https://hsm.stackexchange.com/questions/8109/why-are-x-and-y-commonly-used-as-mathematical-placeholders) . At the end of the day, it’s just convention. It’s useful that when you’re looking at something new, it’s probably true that x is an unknown, n is a natural number, p is a prime, etc.
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