PHILOSOPHY AND FUN OF ALGEBRA
Or we might write down something of this kind:—
The values cannot be known. There is no answer to our problem.
We might write:—
x is the unknowable;
y is non-existent;
z is imaginary,
and accept those as answers and give them forth to the world with all the authority which is given by big print, wide margins, a handsome binding, and a publisher in a large way of business; and so make a great many foolish people believe we are very wise.
Some people call this way of settling things Philosophy; others call it arrogant conceit. Whatever it is, it is not Algebra. The Algebra way of managing is this:—
We say: Suppose that x were Unity (1); what would become of y and z? Then we write out our problem as before; only that, wherever there was x, we now write 1.
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