Variable (mathematics)

In elementary mathematics, a variable is an alphabetic character representing a number, called the value of the variable, which is either arbitrary or not fully specified or unknown. Making algebraic computations with variables as if they were explicit numbers allows one to solve a range of problems in a single computation. A typical example is the quadratic formula, which allows one to solve every quadratic equation by simply substituting the numeric values of the coefficients of the given equation to the variables that represent them.