I'd say Algebra is a different way of looking at basic math. For example, the statements 100 devided by 10 = ____ and the statement 100/10 = n are the same statements, one written algebraically and the other mathematically. The benefits of using Algebra are it allows much more complex problems to be solved, like quadratic equations. 2x^2+4x+16 is not possible to solve using basic math.