ALGEBRA BY A. W. POTTER FORMERLY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, WILKESBARRE, AND NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI .:. CHICAGO Feb 21, 1929 COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY A. W. POTTER. ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, London. POTTER'S G. 8. ALG. W. P. I PREFACE THE growing demand for algebra in the grammar schools has led to the preparation of this brief book; an algebra which shall, in a year's school work, open up the subject in a simple and comprehensive manner, arouse interest, and lay the foundation for more effective work in the high school; and which shall, at the same time, place in the hands of pupils who leave school at the end of the grammar course a key that will unlock many of the mathematical intricacies they will meet. Although arithmetic is but the special application of algebra, the former, dealing as it does with the concrete and particular, is developed first, and the pupil has had seven or eight years of number work before he is introduced to the general subject of "literal arithmetic." In the ordinary method of treating algebra the student has been taught what, to him, is new reasoning with new nomenclature. It is the plan in this book to avoid this gap, and to tie the development of the principles of algebraic relations of quantities on to the special parallel cases with which the pupil is familiar in numbers. The order of treatment of the subject has been suggested by the new course of study of the New York City schools, as it seems to be the most rational and logical. This plan provides for the simple introduction of the various subjects in the first half of the year, with a review and an extended development in the second half. 3 |