Question

What is Algebra?

Answer 1

One good take is this:
http://profkeithdevlin.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/what-is-algebra/

Yours?

Answer 2

Some would facetiously respond with "Algebra is the science of finding x."

Answer 3

1550s, from M.L. algebra, from Arabic al jebr "reunion of broken parts," as in computation, used 9c. by Baghdad mathematician Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi as the title of his famous treatise on equations ("Kitab al-Jabr w'al-Muqabala" "Rules of Reintegration and Reduction"), which also introduced Arabic numerals to the West. The accent shifted 17c. from second syllable to first. The word was used in English 15c.-16c. to mean "bone-setting," probably from Arab medical men in Spain.

Answer 4

Reunion of the broken parts