Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Philosophy and Fun of Algebra
    Philosophy and Fun of Algebra
    Philosophy and Fun of Algebra
    Ebook60 pages40 minutes

    Philosophy and Fun of Algebra

    By Mary Everest Boole

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    'Philosophy and Fun of Algebra' is a book about mathematics for children written by Mary Everest Boole—and is considered to be one of her most popular work. She was a self-taught mathematician who is best known as an author of didactic works on mathematics. Her progressive ideas on education included encouraging children to explore mathematics through playful activities such as curve stitching.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGood Press
    Release dateApr 11, 2021
    ISBN4064066442323

    Read more from Mary Everest Boole

    Related to Philosophy and Fun of Algebra

    Related ebooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Let’s Get Philosophical

      Jun 24, 2022

      Let’s Get Philosophical
      8 min read

    • Article

      Planting Seeds

      Jan 4, 2024

      Planting Seeds
      6 min read

    • Article

      Queen Of Common Sense.

      Dec 10, 2020

      Queen Of Common Sense.
      9 min read

    • Article

      Do The Math

      Aug 12, 2022

      Do The Math
      10 min read

    • Article

      Playing By The Rules

      Oct 1, 2023

      Playing By The Rules
      8 min read

    • Article

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0

      Jul 17, 2022

      Jamie Wheal Meaning 3.0
      18 min read

    • Article

      Uncertainty

      Jun 6, 2022

      Until philosophers are Kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to

      2 min read

    • Article

      Chart Your Own Course

      Jul 6, 2021

      Chart Your Own Course
      6 min read

    • Article

      The “Good Enough” Life

      Apr 13, 2022

      The “Good Enough” Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      From The Editor-in-chief

      Oct 10, 2018

      You can learn a lot at bedtime. As you crawl under covers, as the mattress supports your body, as the pillow caresses your head, the cares of the day fall away and in that free space things are said. Things that would be crushed by the bright busy-ne

      2 min read

    • Article

      Reading Their World

      Oct 1, 2020

      Reading Their World
      4 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      May 1, 2023

      What does the history of the teddy bear teach us about change? Most people don’t know this, but the teddy bear was the subject of a national moral crisis in 1907. It had been created just a few years earlier in Germany, and originally when it was sol

      8 min read

    • Article

      Scientists Know Best

      Jan 22, 2023

      Mothers need science to help them soothe a crying baby You might have believed the old saying that “mother knows best.” But think again, it’s complete tosh—women don’t know anything about being a mother. If you want to know about mothering, ask a sci

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Fantastic Idea

      Aug 6, 2020

      A Fantastic Idea
      6 min read

    • Article

      Mum’s The Word

      Apr 5, 2020

      Mum’s The Word
      9 min read

    • Article

      Spirit In The Psychology

      Oct 31, 2019

      Spirit In The Psychology
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Philosophy and Fun of Algebra

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Philosophy and Fun of Algebra - Mary Everest Boole

      Mary Everest Boole

      Philosophy and Fun of Algebra

      Published by Good Press, 2022

      goodpress@okpublishing.info

      EAN 4064066442323

      Table of Contents

      FROM ARITHMETIC TO ALGEBRA

      THE MAKING OF ALGEBRAS

      SIMULTANEOUS PROBLEMS

      PARTIAL SOLUTIONS AND THE PROVISIONAL ELIMINATION OF ELEMENTS OF COMPLEXITY

      MATHEMATICAL CERTAINTY AND REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM

      THE FIRST HEBREW ALGEBRA

      HOW TO CHOOSE OUR HYPOTHESES

      THE LIMITS OF THE TEACHER'S FUNCTION

      THE USE OF SEWING CARDS

      THE STORY OF A WORKING HYPOTHESIS

      MACBETH'S MISTAKE

      JACOB'S LADDER

      THE GREAT X OF THE WORLD

      GO OUT OF MY CLASS-ROOM

      √-1

      INFINITY

      FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM

      APPENDIX

      FROM ARITHMETIC TO ALGEBRA

      Table of Contents

      PHILOSOPHY AND FUN OF ALGEBRA

      CHAPTER I

      FROM ARITHMETIC TO ALGEBRA

      Arithmetic means dealing logically with facts which we know (about questions of number).

      Logically; that is to say, in accordance with the Logos or hidden wisdom, i.e., the laws of normal action of the human mind.

      For instance, you are asked what will have to be paid for six pounds of sugar at 3d. a pound. You multiply the six by the three. That is not because of any property of sugar, or of the copper of which the pennies are made. You would have done the same if the thing bought had been starch or apples. You would have done just the same ​if the material had been tea at 3s. a pound. Moreover, you would have done just the same kind of action if you had been asked the price of seven pounds of tea at 2s. a pound. You do what you do under direction of the Logos or hidden wisdom. And this law of the Logos is made not by any King or Parliament, but by whoever or whatever created the human mind. Suppose that any Parliament passed an act that all the children in the kingdom were to divide the price by the number of pounds; the Parliament could not make the answer come right. The only result of a foolish Act of Parliament like that would be that everybody's sums would come wrong, and everybody's accounts be in confusion, and everybody would wonder why the trade of the country was going to the bad.

      In former times there were kings and emperors quite stupid enough to pass Acts like that, but governments have grown wiser by experience and found out that, as far as arithmetic goes, there is no use in ordering people to go contrary to the laws of the Logos, because the Logos has ​the whip hand, and knows its own business, and is master of the situation. Therefore children now are allowed to study the laws of the Logos, whenever the business on hand is finding out how much they are to pay in a shop.

      Sometimes your teachers set you more complicated problems than:—What is the price of six pounds of sugar? For instance:—In what proportion must one mix tea bought at 1s. 4d. a pound with tea bought at 1s. 10d. a pound so as to make 5 per cent. profit by selling the mixture at 1s. 9d. a pound?

      Arithmetic, then, means dealing logically with certain facts that we know, about number, with a view to arriving at knowledge which as yet we do not possess.

      When people had only arithmetic and not algebra, they found out a surprising amount of things about numbers and quantities. But there remained problems which they very much needed to solve and could not. They had to guess the answer; and, of course, they usually guessed wrong. And I am inclined to think they ​disagreed. Each person, of course, thought his own guess was nearest to the truth. Probably they quarrelled, and got nervous and overstrained and miserable, and said things which hurt the feelings of their friends, and which they saw afterwards they had better not have said—things which threw no light on the problem, and only upset everybody's mind more than ever. I was not there, so I cannot tell you exactly what happened; but quarrelling and disagreeing and nerve-strain always do go on in such cases.

      At

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1