Abstract
DETAILS of the history of mathematics are better left to specialists, who still have plenty of occupation in clearing up doubtful points and amending errors. But there is a growing opinion among teachers that not only for themselves, but also for their pupils, some knowdge of the course of mathematical discovery is eminently desirable. Besides being a factor in a general education, it is stimulating to the learner, and supplies to the teacher a view of human activity and invention which ought to be suggestive from the psychological side. If there be a “natural” order of learning mathematics, it ocannot be wholly different in the race and the individual; though, of course, this consideration ought not to be turned into a fad. A year should not be wasted on heuristic acquisition of the multiplication table.
Historical Introduction to Mathematical Literature.
By Prof. G. A. Miller. Pp. xiii + 302. (New York: The Macmillan Co.; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 7s. net.
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M., G. Historical Introduction to Mathematical Literature . Nature 98, 387 (1917). https://doi.org/10.1038/098387a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098387a0