a2+b2=?

My family enjoy mathematics. In fact, my husband when once preparing to teach trigonometry to his class super excitedly shared his enthusiasm for a YouTube clip of the Will Smith rip off, ‘Getting Triggy With It”, which remains to this day a family ‘favourite’. (It’s worth checking out if you want a funky way to learn Trigonometry! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2uPYYLH4Zo)

The thing with equations is that they are supposed to balance. One side needs to equal the other. Otherwise we spend our time forensically researching where we have gone astray.
Interestingly and applicable enough, the word Algebra from Arabic “al-jabr” literally means the “reunion of broken parts”. Formulas are generally applied to provide a mathematical solution for real world problems. What’s the formula for the “reunion of broken parts”? What principles need to apply to restore equilibrium, a balanced equation?

In Mathematics, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, for example:

Or a word equation in Chemistry, gives the names of the substances involved in a reaction. Such as: copper + oxygen → copper(II) oxide.

Over the last quarter, my husband and children have harnessed their mathematical minds collectively, applying a formula to reunite my broken parts. Their algebraic expressions have gone beyond ordinary numbers, variables and operators, creating formulas based on heart felt, action driven symbols. If I were to develop a new scientific formula based on such symbols, the left side of their equation would be represented as an “action equation” thus:

Dedication+Concern+Support+Reliability+Encouragement+Perseverance+Unconditional Love

What happens on the right hand side of the equals sign is harder to quantify. The right is supposed to equal the left. What numbers represented as a solution could ever reflect the true width, depth and breadth of this equation?

Large amounts are represented in different ways in solutions. A googolplex is the number 10^googol, or equivalently, 10^(10100). Astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that writing a googolplex in full decimal form (i.e., “10,000,000,000…”) would be physically impossible, since doing so would require more space than is available in the known universe.  Infinity (symbol: ∞) is a concept describing something without any bound or larger than any natural number. Endless.

Endless. Requiring more space than is available in the known universe. Both sound like the closest solution for the right side of this equation. Endless thanks. Endless gratitude.

Dedication+Concern+Support+Reliability+Encouragement+Perseverance+Unconditional Love = 

This unconditional set of formulaic inputs is the algebraic formula for healing and recovery – the reunion of broken parts. To quote a famous ‘philosopher’ the answer is clearly “To infinity, and beyond”. (Buzz Lightyear)