Explain why you might not want to use the variables "x" or "o" when solving a word problem

For 'x' you might not want to use it because you might confuse it for 'multiply'

you might not want to use 'o' because you might confuse it for the number zero (0)

in algebra I usually use parenthasee () for multiplication so for example 3 times 2 can be written as (2) (3) and 2 times x can be written as 2x with placeholders

You might not want to use the variable x while solving and equation because it might get confused with the multiplication sign.