Plane and Solid Geometry Suggestive Method REVISED EDITION By George C. Shutts Instructor in Mathematics, State Normal School PREFACE. In this revision the suggestive features of former editions have been retained, and it is hoped improved. The principal value in the study of geometry lies in the power developed by the individual student in working out as much as possible his own demonstrations. Pupils in their early study of the subject of geometry sometimes fail to see the need of some of the steps in a rigorous deductive demonstration and, to satisfy the demands of the class room, resort to formal memory of text as a substitute for logical thinking. This text has been prepared, not so much to illustrate a logical development of mathematical science as to arrange and adapt the mathematical data herein contained to the comprehension and growth of the pupil. In the introduction of various subjects theorems are stated as postulates or preliminary propositions which in a strictly logical development would require proof. Many of these statements are of so fundamental a nature, have so long been accepted as obvious facts by the pupil, and yet are so difficult of demonstration, that the chief value in the use of them lies not so much in their demonstration as in the comprehension and use of them in the demonstration of truths based upon them. Theorems have been chosen for the earlier demonstrations such that the course of reasoning will appeal to the logical ability of the pupils at that stage of their reasoning power. 259793 |