My father is one of those practical people who could never see the point in algebra.

He would tell me that he could add up, take away,multiply and divide; but once they started introducing x and y that was the end as far as he was concerned.

"What is x?" He would ask, with a tone of exasperation.

Of course my father is not the only person who suffers with a type of algebra phobia. One of the benefits of being human is that there are so many of us, and we are so alike in so many ways, that none of our problems are unique to us as individuals.

So to help those of you like my father, who suffer from algebra phobia, here is the first in a planned sequence of lenses aimed at explaining algebra.