Abstract
IN one sense, it is somewhat surprising to find how little progress has been made, during the past fifty or sixty years prior to 1939, in the presentation and content of many subjects taught in schools and colleges. In some directions there has been a considerable advance, notably in experimental science, but in mathematics the forward movement has been much slower. Our methods and subject-matter seem to be securely tied up in the bonds of tradition. Yet, all the time, a great and evolutionary force has been quietly at work ; this has eventually inspired the necessity for a new out look and a corresponding change in the modus operandi. The Second World War has contributed considerably to this onward sweep, for it has revealed in no unmistakable manner 'how far behind we are. It must not be forgotten that it took a long time to replace Euclid by modern geometry, as well as to break down the artificial barriers erected by tradition between the various compartments in to which mathematics was originally divided. It is, for example, not so long ago that the student of arithmetic and pure geometry was denied any application of algebra to those subjects. Happily, those days have gradually passed away, yet much remains to be done. Only recently, the Mathematical Association devoted much time to a discussion of reforms in the school certificate examinations. As a result, it advocated considerable revision in the syllabuses prescribed by the examining authorities- less formal algebra and geometry, and a closer coordination between geometry and trigonometry.
College Algebra
By Prof. A. Adrian Albert. Pp. xii + 278. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1946.) 14s.
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BROWN, F. College Algebra. Nature 159, 6 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159006a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159006a0