LEONHARD EULER (From an Engraving of the Painting by Darbes) Born at Basel, 1707. Died at St. Petersburg, 1783 Euler was physicist, astronomer and mathematician. He contributed greatly to the progress of higher mathematics, but, in his old age, after he had become blind, he dictated his Anleitung zur Algebra, 1770, which is purely elementary and one of the earliest works systematizing the fundamental processes of Algebra. WITH A TABLE OF LOGARITHMS BY J. L. NEUFELD CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL OF PHILADELPHIA, PA. SIX PORTRAITS AND TWENTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA P. BLAKISTON'S SON & CO. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF GINN & CO. JUL 1:1996 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY P. BLAKISTON'S SON & Co. THE MAPLE PRESS YORK PA PREFACE This Elementary Algebra is designed to meet the demand for a text book that is both elementary and comprehensive. Elementary, in that it is written to conform to the order of intelligence usually found in beginners;, comprehensive, in that the ground covered is sufficient to meet college entrance requirements. In many text books, authors have sacrificed clearness for conciseness, with the result that students are unable to prepare their lessons, and teachers are obliged to lose much time and energy in doing the work the text should have done for them. This is particularly noticeable in reviewing. This text contains an abundance of explanation, identical with that used by the author, in his class room, for more than a quarter of a century and it should be sufficiently clear, even to the slowest student. The similarity of Algebra to Arithmetic has been emphasized throughout the book, in order to bridge the gap between these subjects. The student is made to see that the rules of Arithmetic are also used in Algebra. The various topics are arranged in an order which the author's experience has taught him to be best for High School students. The exercises are carefully graded and selected, and especially difficult problems have been avoided. The demand for practical problems has been met as far as possible, but problems requiring an exposition of various principles of the sciences, for which the teacher may have neither time nor inclination, have been excluded. The Review Exercises are made up of questions taken from High School examination papers. The author does not agree with so-called modern educators who think that too much space is given to the subject of Factoring in text books. A thorough knowledge of Fac |