Recently I attended training on a platform our Math Department has chosen as a tool in their Algebra curriculum next year.  Part of the training involved, unsurprisingly, doing some math problems. I would choose x and y as my variables as I wrote equations, but I noticed none of the math teachers did. They would choose s, b, or h.   “Don’t you guys use x anymore?”, I asked. “No”, I was told, “math can and should tell a story”. The choice of the variable can help tell the story, and so, when asked to determine how many books a certain number of student read in so many hours, s as the variable for student continues the story, as does h for hours and b for books. I was delighted because there is nothing I like more than storytelling. And I agree, the story and the problem make more sense when the variable name has some kinship to reality.

Then I learned the x and y axis can be called the independent and dependent variables.  Oh, my! What stories one can tell when you consider things that way.  Now, I know music and math are intertwined, and I had a breakthrough when I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast Revisionist History on country music http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/16-the-king-of-tears.  Country music songwriters tell some of the best stories. These songs have a dependent and independent variable! The amount of bad luck and heartbreak are variables dependent on the actions of the independent singers and their choices.
bl+hb =(s*c)/2.  Thank you Math Department. Every x does have a story.