Review

Author(s): C. O. Tuckey
Review by: C. O. Tuckey
Source: The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 19, No. 234 (Jul., 1935), pp. 245-248
Published by: The Mathematical Association
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 REVIEWS 245

P. 34. The "volume of a cylinder of radius 2 inches and height 3i feet"

is required in "sq. inches ".
P. 34. The number of " tins 3 ins. by 2 ins. by 1 in." that can be cut from
"a piece of tin 20 inches square, assuming the tins have no lids " is ambiguous.
P. 35. If both casks are full, a quantity cannot be taken from one and
poured into the other; if not, the quantity originally in each cask must be
stated.
P. 36. Cadbury's 7U per cent. preference shares appear to be ?1 shares,
but this is not stated. W. J. D.

tle'ments de Geometrie Plane. I. La droite et le cercle. Pp. vi, 144. 14 fr.

1934. II. La similitude et les aires. Pp. vi, 104. 10 fr. 1934. Cours de
Geometrie. I. Geometrie plane. Pp. viii, 272. 20 fr. 1935. By H. EsTwVE
and H. MITAULT. (Gauthier-Villars)
It seems useless in this review to attempt to estimate to what degree this
course of geometry will be valuable for those for whom it is intended or
whether it is likely to supplant other books intended for the same classes.
Suffice it to say that the series of books is carefully planned and lucidly written.
It seems more likely to be useful to readers of the Gazette to note the out-
standing differences between this course and the type of geometry book now
commonly used in England and to suggest that teachers of mathematics in
English schools would find it both interesting and profitable to make them-
selves acquainted with a course of geometry which presents subject-matter
more or less the same in a manner so different *.
The two volumes of Ele6ments are intended as an initiation into geometry
for complete beginners. The members of Class IV (average age 13), for whom
the first volume is meant, have for two years previously spent two hours (of
class) weekly on arithmetic and have done no algebra or geometry. They now
have three hours weekly and start geometry, with which in Class IV they do a
little arithmetic while in Class III (average age 14), using Volume II, a start
is also made at algebra, the geometry being the more important part of the
mathematical work in both these years.
Before going into details here are some general comparisons. In this course
the exercises (except for a very few scattered through the text) are at the end
and occupy between I and 4 of the total space. In the two volumes of the
Elements 290 examples occupy 36 pages out of 250. In Vol. I of the Cours, 331
examples take up 43 pages out of 269. This is much less space given to exer-
cises than in English books where the fraction would be nearer I than ^ and
might easily be more.
The method employed throughout is that of " discovery"; for example a
section is headed " Study of the figure formed by a circle and two intersecting
secants " and ended by " Whence the following enunciation. Theorem. If...
PA. PB = PC . PD ". And in this case, though not in all, the general enuncia-
tion is given also.
It is supposed throughout that teaching by the master with the collaboration
of the pupils precedes the use of the book. " We think that if the oral lesson,
to be alive, should leave a large part to the initiative of the pupils, the book
ought to codify the word of the master and give the pupil when he studies his
lesson a picture, clear but not necessarily chronological, of what has been
brought to light in the preceding class ".
Turning to Vol. I, for Class IV of average age 13, the first thing that will
strike the English teacher is that the generally accepted view that children
* See in connection with this review the article by Prof. Minois, pp. 189-191 of
this Gazette.

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 246 THE MATHEMATICAL GAZETTE

mature more rapidly in France than in this country and are approximately
a year earlier in intellectual development is borne out by the kind of material
on which they commence geometry.
The early work is definitely more advanced-needing more careful attention
to explanation and reasoning-than in English geometries. Chapters I, II
and III discuss congruence properties in which the parallel postulate is not
used, parallels being reserved till Chapter IV. In dealing with congruence
the method of superposition is used freely, a print (calque) of one figure being
placed on another. The first two cases of congruence for triangles are the ASA
and SAS cases in this order, and in deducing the conditions for congruence use
is made of the theorem that in an isosceles triangle the median and altitude
coincide. A striking instance of unusual order is the introduction, before
parallels are touched, of the inequality theorems including that which is con-
cerned with two triangles in which two pairs of equal sides contain unequal
angles, and also of the theorem that the tangent at a point of a circle is at right
angles to the radius.
Here are some puzzles:
(i) How do you prove without using parallels (a) that the tangent is per-
pendicular to the radius, (b) that the other angles of a right-angled triangle
are acute (exterior angle not used) ?
(ii) In what respect does a "convex broken line " differ from a " convex
polygonal line" ?
(iii) What are " rhomboide " and " lozange " ? *
The remaining three chapters of Vol. I deal with angle properties (angle-sum,
angles in a circle), quadrilaterals and concurrent lines in triangles and polygons.
Of the angle properties of the circle that which is taken first is a modified form
of the alternate segment theorem (the angle between tangent and chord is
half the angle at the centre). This order has the advantage that to prove the
angle at the centre double that at the circumference only one case is needed.
Vol. II, for average age 14, begins with a chapter on the ratio of two seg-
ments and the division of a segment in a given ratio in two places. Chapter II
gives the theorem of Thales (that of proportional division) and its converse,
and includes the property of the bisector of an angle of a triangle. Chapter III
discusses similarity of triangles and of polygons; it is to be noticed that the
3-side case of similarity does not use the figure with two opposed congruent
triangles but uses the same type of figure as in the other cases, a parallel being
drawn to the base of one of the triangles.
Chapter IV deals with metric relations in the circle and the triangle, metric
relations being those which demand the same unit of length in different
directions. It comes as rather a shock to find how little stress is laid on
Pythagoras' theorem. Of the metric relations the rectangle property of the
circle is introduced first and to it, with its special case and converse, 61 pages
are devoted. Rather less than a page deals with Pythagoras' theorem, which
is proved by means of a tangent and secant-diameter of a circle (see appendix
to the forthcoming Geometry Report). The mean proportional properties of
a right-angled triangle follow and what we call the extensions of Pythagoras
proved from the rectangle property of the circle. Then come some construc-
tions; mean proportional and others such as finding two lengths being given
their mean proportional and difference; these constructions conclude a
chapter full of matter and full of interest on the grounds of novelty of
presentation.
* The answer to (iii) is " kite " and " rhombus ". It seems a pity that in this
country rhomboid should be used (as it seems to be) as an unnecessary duplicate
of parallelogram.

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 REVIEWS 247

A short chapter on the length of a circle is followed by a chapter on area

which ends the volume. Here after a preliminary explanation of what area
means we have the area of rectangle, of triangle, of polygons (including
parallelogram and trapezium) and of circle; the concluding sections dealing
with areas of similar triangles and the bisection of a triangle by a parallel to
the base.
For the Second Class, average age 15, there are four hours (of class) weekly
for mathematics, but as algebra is begun there cannot be much change in the
time given to geometry.
Here we come to the Cours de Geometrie, Vol. I, and a glance at it will show
that we have very definitely reached the " consolidating " or " systematizing "
stage (in French it sounds more ambitious still-the period " de perfectionne-
ment "). In this " though there is no pretension to build up a purely abstract
geometry, yet a greater loyalty towards the enunciation of postulates appears
to the authors as being both a means of culture and a simplification ".
In the first three of the four " books " of this volume (which is nearly as
long as the other two together) there is not a great deal that is new; the
theorems of Menelaus and Ceva and something about harmonic division is
almost all; but the point of view adopted in what amounts to a careful
revision of the whole of the previous work is quite fresh. There are two main
parts, Linear Geometry and Metric Geometry, of which the first occupies
Book I and the second Books II and III.
In Book I are studied, parallelism, translation, transposition (point-sym-
metry) and homothety. The theorems of Menelaus and Ceva are taken, the
proof of the former, using the product of two homotheties, being quite different
from that in common use in England. In discussing areas from the linear
point of view the familiar figure of two equal parallelograms on the same base
appears for the first time.
Book II goes on to metric geometry which (as already mentioned) " exacts
the same unit of length in two different directions ". Here all the early work
on angle is passed in review (vertically opposite angles, p. 63; exterior angles
of a polygon are equal to four right angles, p. 70) mainly from the point of
view of rotation and symmetry.
Book III is devoted to constructions which are divided into "linear"
ones involving ruler and set-square, and " metric " ones involving ruler and
compass. All the elementary standard constructions are gone through includ-
ing some of the tangencies (P.P.L. and P.P.C.), the solution of quadratic
equations (to find a and b given a+b and ,/ab) and the construction of a
square equal to a given rectangle.
Book IV contains two chapters, on Vectors and Trigonometry. The former
includes centre of gravity and scalar multiplication. The latter is (to English
eyes) a most surprising chapter. Trigonometry as far as the addition theorems
is dealt with in 14 pages and a little over 20 exercises, none of which are
numerical solutions or the familiar problems on heights, etc. The cosine of an
angle is defined as the scalar product of two unit vectors and the sine as the
co-cosine. For a triangle, the formula for the area and the sine and cosine rules
are proved, and also for a cyclic quadrilateral the formulae xy=ac +bd and
xly = (ad + bc)/(ab + cd). Such things as the formula for tan (A + B) and cos 2A
are left as exercises, and there are others which on this side of the Channel
would hardly be set to those who had done trigonometry for less than two
years: for example, the area of a triangle is
-R2 (sin 2A + sin 2B + sin 2C).
It is difficult to believe that this chapter will not need a good deal of additional
matter with easier examples to be furnished by the teacher.

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248 THE MATHEMATICAL GAZETTE

Vol. II of the Cours (not yet to hand) is to deal with solid geometry for the
members of Class I, of average age 16, and, according to the preface, is to be
divided somewhat similarly to Vol. I in that the study of parallelism is to
precede that of perpendicularity.
It remains to remark that if one of the main benefits of foreign travel is to
get away from an accustomed environment into strange surroundings, some
of these benefits may easily, cheaply and profitably, be obtained by the
purchase and study of this most interesting series of textbooks.
C. 0. TUCKEY.

Erreurs de Mathematiciens des origines a nos jours. By M. LECAT. Pp.

xii, 167. 18 belgas. 1935. (Librairie Castaigne, Brussels)
The title of M. Lecat's book is alluring; the contents, however, are severely
professional, since the author is concerned merely with listing the occurrence
of errors and their correction. The page, printed in four columns on one side
of the paper, running north and south instead of in the more usual arrange-
ment, can be appreciated by an example taken more or less at random.
"Hermite, Charles. Ne le 25-xii-1822, a Dieuze (Mos.); m. le 14-i-01,
a P. 1856, Me. It. (Sc); 67, Pr. Ilc. Pol.; 69, Fac. Sc.P.-Vir Arithmeticus.
Arithmologie-Formes quadratiques n-aires. Theoreme d'oh H. deduit
l'existence de formes reduites. [182]. l [Premiere lettre a Jacobi]. J. r. ang
Math. 40 (1850), p. 261/78; Oeuvres, t. I, Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1905, p.
100/21. V. A. Lebesgue (1791/1875) trouve que les demonstrations 'sont
insuffisantes. I Sur la reduction des formes quadratiques d4finies positives ...
J. Math. pures appl. (2) I (1856) p. 401/6 ".
The number in clarendon type is the serial number of the error, and runs up
to 476. The main list is in alphabetical order: it is indexed and cross-indexed
by lists of subjects, of periodicals containing errors, of periodicals correcting
errors, a chronological list of errors and of corrections, lists of authors com-
mitting errors and of authors correcting errors. There is also an appendix
which by means of short extracts from the mass of papers contributed to the
controversy gives a good account of "la plus audacieuse imposture qui ait
jamais ete ourdie ", of which Chasles was the dupe and Vrain-Denis Lucas the
villain.
Circle-squarings are excluded-in view of the title we might almost say
naturally; so too are " proofs " of the parallel postulate, and all but a selected
few of the thousands of " proofs " of Fermat's Last Theorem. What light
relief there is comes from footnotes in which the author expresses strong
opinions on a variety of non-mathematical topics. T. A. A. B.

1019. JAPANESE EOUCATION.

It was strange to come upon a boy working equations from Godfrev and
Siddons' Algebra, while he was acting as gate-keeper to a sacred enclosure in
the centre of Japan.-Contemporary Review, Sept. 1933, p. 338.
1020. An early instance of the use of coordinate geometry of more than
three dimensions (apparently with an arbitrary origin !):
"Then let him be Dictator
For six months and no more,
And have a Master of the Knights
And axes twenty-four ".
-Lord Macaulay, The Battle of the Lake Regillus. [Per Mr. J. T. Combridge.]
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW

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