I was dazzled by several errors of fact and conception. The
statement that Descartes missed the formula is the error that
annoyed me the most. What I left out was the statement that
"their (Archimedes and Descartes) work almost entirely dealt with
measurement". What a vast wrong-headed oversimplification. I do
not agree that any publicity is a good thing. The proliferation of
these kind of errors prevents true progress in general education
in the history of mathematics.
Jim Kiernan
Brooklyn College
On Tuesday, April 06, 1999 Ed Sandifer wrote:
> Jim Kiernan noticed the glaring error of Euler's nationality in last
> Sunday's New York Times, but, perhaps dazzled by the glare of that error,
> he missed another: the formula should be V *minus* E *plus* F equals 2.
>
> My grandfather always told me that bad publicity is better than no
> publicity, so perhaps we should be grateful for whatever recognition
> we get.
>
> Ed Sandifer