“By the beginning of the seventeenth century we may say that the fundamental principles of arithmetic, algebra, theory of equations, and trigonometry had been laid down, and the outlines of the subjects as we know them had been traced. It must be, however, remembered that there were no good elementary text-books on these subjects; and a knowledge of them was therefore confined to those who could extract it from the ponderous treatises in which it lay buried. Though much of the modern algebraical and trigonometrical notation had been inroduced, it was not familiar to mathematicians, nor was it even universally accepted; and it was not until the end of the seventeenth century that the language of the subjects was definitely fixed. Considering the absence of good text-books, I am inclined... to admire the rapidity with which it came into universal use, than to cavil at the hesitation to trust to it alone which many writers showed.”
“Because of white racism's ability to bludgeon us into believing that we are inferior beings and therefore incapable of learning math and the sciences, we must spend a significant amount of our learnin...”
Mathematics education
“All the modern higher mathematics is based on a calculus of operations, on laws of thought. All mathematics, from the first, was so in reality; but the evolvers of the modern higher calculus have know...”
Mathematics education
“The author holds that our school curricula, by stripping mathematics of its cultural content and leaving a bare skeleton of technicalities, have repelled many a fine mind. It is the aim of this book t...”
Mathematics education
“Although there is no study which presents so simple a beginning as that of geometry, there is none in which difficulties grow more rapidly as we proceed, and what may appear at first rather paradoxica...”
Mathematics education
“I have tried to say to students of mathematics that they should read the classics and beware of secondary sources. This is a point which Eric Temple Bell makes repeatedly... in ... that the men of who...”
Mathematics education