They teach further the solution of problems leading to equations of the first and second degree, to determinate and indeterminate equations, not by single and double position only, but by real algebra, proved by means of geometric constructions, and including the use of letters as symbols for known numbers, the unknown quantity being called res and its square census.
The distinction between algebraical and arithmetical reasoning then lies mainly in the fact that the former is in a more condensed form than the latter; an unknown quantity being represented by a special symbol, and other symbols being used as a kind of shorthand for verbal expressions.
We therefore represent them by separate symbols, in the same way that we represent the unknown quantity in an equation by a symbol.
The military strength of the two republics was practically an unknown quantity.
He knew the connexion existing between the positive roots of an equation (which, by the way, were alone thought of as roots) and the coefficients of the different powers of the unknown quantity.
