Algebra Quotes - Page 6

• When we find ourselves unable to reason (as one often does when presented with, say, a problem in algebra) it is because our imagination is not touched. One can begin to reason only when a clear picture has been formed in the imagination. Bad teaching is teaching which presents an endless procession of meaningless signs, words and rules, and fails to arouse the imagination.

  W. W. Sawyer

  Education, Teaching, Imagination

  W. W. Sawyer (2012). “Mathematician's Delight”, p.32, Courier Corporation

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• Spoken of the young Archimedes: . . . [he] was as much enchanted by the rudiments of algebra as he would have been if I had given him an engine worked by steam, with a methylated spirit lamp to heat the boiler; more enchanted, perhaps for the engine would have got broken, and, remaining always itself, would in any case have lost its charm, while the rudiments of algebra continued to grow and blossom in his mind with an unfailing luxuriance. Every day he made the discovery of something which seemed to him exquisitely beautiful; the new toy was inexhaustible in its potentialities.

  Archimedes

  Beautiful, Discovery, Broken

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• In high school, I loved history. I also loved cosmography, algebra. Mexico is so rich in culture and history, and I have always enjoyed that.

  Carlos Slim

  School, Culture, Mexico

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• We think only through the medium of words. Languages are true analytical methods. Algebra, which is adapted to its purpose in every species of expression, in the most simple, most exact, and best manner possible, is at the same time a language and an analytical method. The art of reasoning is nothing more than a language well arranged.

  Antoine Lavoisier

  Art, Learning, Simple

  "Elements of Chemistry". Book by Antoine Lavoisier, 1790.

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• As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else for us to learn, except possibly algebra.

  Harper Lee

  Home, Literature, Way

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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• Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

  Mary Schmich

  Real, Worry, Tuesday

  Mary Schmich (2012). “The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Chicago Tribune's Winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary”, p.31, Agate Digital

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• It is not always the most brilliant speculations nor the choice of the most exotic materials that is most profitable. I prefer Monsieur de Reaumur busy exterminating moths by means of an oily fleece; or increasing fowl production by making them hatch without the help of their mothers, than Monsieur Bemouilli absorbed in algebra, or Monsieur Leibniz calculating the various advantages and disadvantages of the possible worlds.

  Noel-Antoine Pluche

  Mother, Mean, Science

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• Time was when all the parts of the subject were dissevered, when algebra, geometry, and arithmetic either lived apart or kept up cold relations of acquaintance confined to occasional calls upon one another; but that is now at an end; they are drawn together and are constantly becoming more and more intimately related and connected by a thousand fresh ties, and we may confidently look forward to a time when they shall form but one body with one soul.

  James Joseph Sylvester

  Life, Math, Ties

  James Joseph Sylvester (1870). “The Laws of Verse: Or Principles of Versification Exemplified in Metrical Translations, Together with an Annotated Reprint of the Inaugural Presidential Address to the Mathematical and Physical Section of the British Association at Exeter”, p.124

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• The poet dreams of the classroom I dreamed I stood up in class And I said aloud: Teacher, Why is algebra important? Sit down, he said. Then I dreamed I stood up And I said: Teacher, I’m weary of the turkeys That we have to draw every fall. May I draw a fox instead? Sit down, he said. Then I dreamed I stood up once more and said: Teacher, My heart is falling asleep And it wants to wake up. It needs to be outside. Sit down, he said.

  Mary Oliver

  Dream, Teacher, Fall

  Mary Oliver (2010). “Swan: Poems and Prose Poems”, p.27, Beacon Press

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• There is certainly the intention of efforts like the Common Core to raise education standards and make sure that every student masters advanced math concepts - algebra, geometry, statistics and probability.

  Anya Kamenetz

  Math, Effort, Statistics

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• Whoever thinks algebra is a trick in obtaining unknowns has thought it in vain. No attention should be paid to the fact that algebra and geometry are different in appearance. Algebras (jabbre and maqabeleh) are geometric facts which are proved by propositions five and six of Book two of Elements.

  Omar Khayyam

  Book, Thinking, Two

  As quoted in "A Paper of Omar Khayyam" by A.R. Amir-Moez in "Scripta Mathematica", 26, 1963.

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• The teaching of the ten thousand states of mind, particularly as one advances further, is done through transmission. This is where we differ from teaching algebra or calculus.

  Frederick Lenz

  Teaching, Mind, Done

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• Celestial mechanics is the origin of dynamical systems, linear algebra, topology, variational calculus and symplectic geometry.

  Vladimir Arnold

  Mathematics, Mechanic, Topology

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• As places of learning, schools have a responsibility to also educate on nutrition, which we all can agree is far more important than algebra, no matter what your third-period teacher claims.

  Lynda Resnick

  Teacher, Responsibility, School

  "Bringing the Food Revolution to Our Schools". Interview with Lynda Resnick, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 15, 2010.

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• By the help of God and with His precious assistance, I say that Algebra is a scientific art. The objects with which it deals are absolute numbers and measurable quantities which, though themselves unknown, are related to "things" which are known, whereby the determination of the unknown quantities is possible.

  Omar Khayyam

  Determination, Art, Numbers

  "Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra" by Omar Khayyám, 1070.

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• Computer science needs to be part of the core curriculum - like algebra, biology, physics, or chemistry. We need all schools to teach it, not just 10%.

  Brad Feld

  School, Curriculum, Needs

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• ... The approach of von Neumann and Connes to the use of non-commutative algebra in physics is naive, the situation is much more complicated.

  Israel Gelfand

  Science, Use, Physics

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• The assumption that the square of a unit vector
  is positive unity leads to an algebra whose characteristic
  quantities are non-associative.

  Cargill Gilston Knott

  Squares, Unity, Vectors

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• Why is it that Serge Lange's Linear Algebra, published by no less a Verlag than Springer, ostentatiously displays the sale of a few thousand copies over a period of fifteen years, while the same title by Seymour Lipschutz in the The Schaum's Outlines will be considered a failure unless it brings in a steady annual income from the sale of a few hundred thousand copies in twenty-six languages?

  Gian-Carlo Rota

  Science, Years, Fifteen

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• And while good books - even so-so books - serve both functions, if you ever have to choose one over the other, keep in mind that a book that entertains without enlightening can still be a guilty pleasure, but a book that enlightens without entertaining is algebra.

  Pete Dexter

  Book, Mind, Enlightening

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• It is vain futility to analyze the algebra of time.

  Dejan Stojanovic

  Time, Vain, Futility

  "The Creator". Book by Dejan Stojanovic (Sequence: "The Whisper of Eternity", Chapter: "The Day", p. 57), June 17, 2012.

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• People want sex education out of the schools. They believe sex education causes promiscuity. Hey, I took algebra, but I never do math.

  Elayne Boosler

  Sex, Believe, School

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• Everybody has a nightmare, and everybody apparently has falling dreams, and everybody has the drowning dream, and everybody has certain kinds of sexual manifestation dreams, as well as our stress dreams; I didn't study for the algebra test, I didn't study for my driving test, you know, all those dreams. I still have those dreams, and it's just such an interesting thing that our mind can turn against us, our own mind, you know we all have.

  Robert Englund

  Dream, Stress, Fall

  Source: bloody-disgusting.com

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• My algebra was relatively poor. I found it very difficult to use equations that substituted numbers - to which I had a synesthetic and emotional response - for letters, to which I had none. It was because of this that I decided not to continue math at Advanced level, but chose to study history, French and German instead.

  Daniel Tammet

  Math, Emotional, Numbers

  Daniel Tammet (2007). “Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant”, p.108, Simon and Schuster

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• Andrew Hacker argues that algebra and trigonometry and calculus are subjects that almost nobody used after they graduate, and so why should we continue to compel students to try to pass them?

  Anya Kamenetz

  Trying, Students, Arguing

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