Practical Geometry

Abstract

THE authors of these two volumes (obtainable also as a single book) regard the teaching of geometry as divisible into four stages. The first consists of little more than instruction in the use of instruments and methods of measurement, including drawing to scale. The second is an intuitive treatment of a few fundamental propositions, and merges into the third stage, which covers the whole field of the ordinary course of elementary geometry, plane and solid, treating the various theorems in an informal fashion, and explaining the methods of constructions, often without proof, in the natural order suggested by the theorems. In these stages the pupil is led to apply the results of the theorems, whether formally proved or not, both to numerical examples and to formal riders. The fourth stage knits all the theorems, previously considered, into a logical chain with formal proof. A few riders are interspersed, and there is a considerable amount of general discussion in this part of the text; the section closes with a collection of riders arranged under headings corresponding to suitable groups of propositions.

Practical Geometry.

By C. Godfrey A. W. Siddons. Pp. xv + 256. Theoretical Geometry: A Sequel to “Practical Geometry. ” By C. Godfrey and A. W. Siddons. Pp. xiv + 104. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1920.) Price 7s. net. (Complete in one volume.)