Letters to the Editor

doi:10.5951/mt.61.5.0495

Letters to the Editor

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.61.5.0495 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 61 (5) ◽

pp. 495-551

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Teacher ◽

Letters To The Editor ◽

Quadratic Equations

I'm sure by now someone has pointed out to Mr. J. J. Buc of Blue Island, Illinois, that his exposition “Fallacy in Solving Quadratic Equations” (THE MATHEMATICS TEACHER, December 1967, pp. 884 and 897) is itself fallacious. Ah, the beauty of mathematics—what structure, what strength! Should it fall through so simple an argument as Mr. Buc presents, we would indeed be in trouble.

Download Full-text

Mathematical Miscellanea

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.46.1.0034 ◽

1953 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 34-37

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Teacher ◽

Quadratic Equations

In Miscellanea 19, [The Mathematics Teacher, vol. XLIV (March, 1951), p. 193], we published a list of methods for solving quadratic equations which was compiled by William J. Hazard. The following comments are from a later letter in which Professor Hazard clarified one or two of the items he had listed.

Download Full-text

Sharing Teaching Ideas: A Squeeze Play on Quadratic Equations

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.75.2.0132 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 75 (2) ◽

pp. 132-136

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Mathematics Teacher ◽

Quadratic Equation ◽

Senior Year ◽

Quadratic Formula ◽

Mathematics Courses ◽

Quadratic Equations ◽

Teaching Ideas

As a mathematics teacher whose present assignment is to teach science, I was somewhat dismayed when my physics class wa unable to solve a nontrivial quadratic equation. These students are all enrolled in senior-year mathematics and had taken all lower level mathematics courses available in our small Western Kansas high school. They charged this inability to having forgotten the quadratic formula. To the e students the quadratic formula is a magic passkey to solving “unfactorable” quadratic equations. On further di scussion, l discovered that they vaguely remembered having heard of the method of completing the square, but they saw no connection between the quadratic formula and that method of solving a quadratic equation. They could solve simple quadratics by hit-and-miss factoring, but that was their only tool with which to attack this problem.

Download Full-text

MT's letters to the editor

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mathteacher.111.7.0486 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 111 (7) ◽

pp. 486-489

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Teacher ◽

Specific Interactions ◽

Letters To The Editor

found the November/December 2017 issue of Mathematics Teacher more valuable than usual in its content, in particular for its focus and attention on specific interactions between teachers and their students. I also thought that the pairings of authors (such as Fitzpatrick and Dominguez or Madden and Gonzales) was especially powerful.

Download Full-text

Letters to the Editor

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.61.3.0245 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 61 (3) ◽

pp. 245-327

Keyword(s):

Mathematics Teacher ◽

Letters To The Editor ◽

Letter To The Editor

I note with interest the letter to the editor written by Duane Forsyth in the October 1967 issue of THE MATHEMATICS TEACHER, page 640, concerning a symbol for the inverse of a number.

Download Full-text

Letters to the Editor

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mt.61.4.0382 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 61 (4) ◽

pp. 382-421

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Mathematics Teacher ◽

Secondary School Student ◽

Letters To The Editor

The article in THE MATHEMATICS TEACHER for November 1967 by Herbert Fremont has at least one strong supporter. He has raised a question of pedagogical significance to all teachers not only those in mathematics. He states, in connection with the alleged unifying role of the concept of set, that “the student cannot possibly appreciate the role of unification if he has no comprehension of what is being unified.” And the secondary school student scarcely suspects that this can be done.

Download Full-text