Abstract
PART 1. is, except as regards one or two things, sufficient for students who are not going to specialise in mathematics, and part ii. contains the higher portions which are usually read by scholarship pupils. The author has, however, reserved the ordinary methods of finding the H.C.F. of two expressions and of extracting square roots until part ii., whereas in many cases these methods are taught in preparatory schools. In part i. he has shown the student how to obtain square roots by means of indeterminate coefficients, so that the postponement of the formal method is not a very serious drawback; moreover, the teacher can introduce it if he likes without difficulty, as boys readily learn it. But with regard to H.C.F. the case is different. If the author had, in part i., shown pupils that the H.C.F. is contained in the sum or difference of any multiples of the two given expressions, he would have put a powerful weapon into their hands, quite sufficient for all ordinary cases; but practically all he says is that both expressions must be factorised, the remainder theorem being used for cubic and higher expressions. Graphs are well treated, except that in the diagrams the author omits the minus signs on the negative side of the axes. There are a great many misprints and other inaccuracies, chiefly in part i., some of which are serious; for example, the rule given in Art. 80 (p. 113) is quite wrong as it stands, and even if corrected would be difficult to understand, and would be, moreover, of only partial application.
School Algebra.
By W. E. Paterson. Part i., pp. 328 + xxxix. Part ii., pp. 333–604 + xli–lxxvii. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909.) Price 3s. each with answers; 2s. 6d. each without.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
School Algebra . Nature 80, 426 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/080426a0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/080426a0