Abstract
THIS book contains, in addition to the examples which form the main part of the volume, an “Introductory Summary of Rules and Formulæ,” extending to about one-third of the whole contents. Although Mr. Cook in his preface lays special stress on this summary, we are by no means sure that its introduction into the volume is an improvement. It is insufficient to allow the student to dispense with the use of a text-book; and a student, who desired to refresh his memory about some particular method or formula, would do better to read it up in his text-book, than to refer to a set of stereotyped rules. Such a summary has the positive disadvantage that it inclines the student to conceive of algebra as consisting entirely of a set of rules, proceeding he knows not whence and leading he knows not whither—a conception which it is one of the chief duties of a teacher of algebra steadily to combat. In parts of this introduction, moreover, there is a looseness of method which is apt to prove very misleading to the student. To refer to only one or two cases in point, we would mention in the first place a confusion between an integral or a rational number and an integral or a rational function. This confusion is shown in the case of division (p. 10) and in the case of root-extraction (pp. 46 and 51). Again, Mr. Cook defines (p. 43) the G.C.M. of two or more fractions, a conception which is perfectly useless in algebra, and only tends to confuse the mind of the learner as to the real meaning of the algebraical G.C.M.
Class-book of Algebra Examples for Middle and High Schools.
Part II., for High Schools. By John Cook, Principal, Central College, Bangalore. (Madras: printed at the Lawrence Asylum Press, Mount Road. 1887.)
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A., R. Our Book Shelf . Nature 37, 102 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/037102a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/037102a0