IN ALGEBRA, BEING AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THAT SCIENCE: DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF ACADEMIES AND COMMON SCHOOLS. BY EBENEZER BAILEY, PRINCIPAL OF THE YOUNG LADIES' HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON; AUTHOR OF AT a meeting of the School Committee of the City of Boston, March 11, 1834, Voted, That "BAILEY'S ALGEBRA" be used in the Writing Schools in which Algebra is allowed to be taught. Attest, S. F. MCCLEARY, Secretary Entered according to Act of Congress, in the vear 1834, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THIS treatise is especially intended for the use of beginners. I have long wished that Algebra might be introduced into common schools, as a standard branch of education; and there seems to be no good reason why the study of this most interesting and useful science should be confined to the higher seminaries of learning. The upper classes, at least, in common schools, might be profitably instructed in its elements, without neglecting any of those branches to which they usually attend. This work pretends to no original investigations, no new discoveries. My labor has been the very humble one of selecting such materials as belong to the elements of Algebra, and of arranging them in such a manner as may render the introduction to the science easy. If there be any peculiarity in this work, it is its simplicity. I have endeavored to make it as plain and |