# Language

## A trio of math limericks

Inspired by Math with Bad Drawings, here a trio of my own limerick creations: Two circles surrounding a square Was more than the poor thing could bear. It made itself fetal ‘Til planar was hedral. Cylindrical nets are a snare!…

## What is Multiplication, Anyway?

Yet again, the internet has seized upon an elementary student’s math homework and has decided to argue about Common Core. This time, it’s about a test question. The student was asked to “Use the repeated addition strategy to solve :…

## Types of Numbers

Elementary school students spend most of their time working with counting numbers, that is, the non-negative integers. As students progress through secondary school, they work increasingly with non-integers, eventually entering the complex number plane. However, many of them maintain the…

## Milne: “Are” vs “Is”

I noted in an earlier post that in 1893, Milne used “are” as a casual speech reading of the equality sign, rather than the “is” that I’m used to. Adam Liss notes that “are” is also used in Danny Kaye’s…

## The Haves and the Have-Gots

This is a post on language and linguistics, one of my other passions. This is also largely an educated riff; there has been a lot written on this subject, and I do not profess to higher mastery than what comes…

## Milne on Using “And”

At a used bookstore today, I picked up the 1893 text Elements of Arithmetic: For Primary and Intermediate Classes in Public and Private Schools by Dr. William J. Milne. One thing that I noticed was that he is adamant that “and”…

## Spelling and Math

Last night, as part of our learning-play, I asked my five-year-old son how to spell “night”. He told me “nitk”. That got me thinking about math education. English spelling is notorious for its quirks and oddities. In the case of…

The lesser known of two math memes currently wandering around the Internet involves an interesting equation: $\sqrt{2\frac{2}{3}} = 2\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}$ This has spawned at least three discussions I’ve seen so far: What other values is this equation true for? Is this…

## Forms of the Quadratic: Terminology

Because mathematical terminology developed piecemeal over time, there are many inconsistencies which prove to be a challenge to students. One of the more obvious examples is what is called the “standard form” of the quadratic. A quadratic equation has three…

## MEYL: Q. 1194

This is my translation of Meyl’s 1878 proof that a triangular pyramid of balls will only have a square number of balls if the base side is two or forty-eight. “Solutions to questions posed in The New Annals: Question 1194.”…

## Lucas: Q. 1180

This is my translation of Lucas’s 1877 proof that a square pyramid of balls will only have a square number of balls if the base side is twenty-four. “Solutions to questions posed in The New Annals: Question 1180.” M. Édouard…

## Gerono: Q. 1177

This is my translation of Gerono’s 1877 proof listing all the possible solutions (x, y) for the equation $$y^2 = x^3 + x^2 + x + 1$$. “Solutions to questions posed in The New Annals: Question 1177.” MM. Gerono, Nouvelles…