mavii

In algebra, letters are used when numbers are not known. Algebraic terms, such as \(2s\) or \(8y\), leave the multiplication signs out. So rather than \(2 \times s\), write \(2s\), and rather than ...

Parsing algebraic expressions is always a pain ... there’s a nice animated flow chart that you can step through, almost like a debugger. There are a few details left for the end.