Subject: Re: [HM] Caratheodory, Klein & Grassman
From: John Conway (conway@math.Princeton.EDU)
Date: Sun Mar 19 2000 - 19:06:06 EST
> I am reminded of a story told by Klein, according to which the teaching of
> calculus was at one time forbidden in German high schools, because it was
> regarded by someone in the Education Ministry as not rigorous. This meant
> that textbook authors were forced to avoid the notation and terminology of
> the calculus, but they managed to get past this by presenting the standard
> arguments in a geometrical version that wasn't identifiable to the Ministry
> officials. As a result, the beginning theorems of the calculus were all
> attributed to the authors of these textbooks for quite some time!
>
Klein tells the story in his "Elementary Mathematics from an
Advanced Standpoint", and I think in more detail somewhere else
(perhaps in one of his letters?).
I don't think it has any relevance to the Ausdehnungslehre. That
turns up in the important references you mention because it was a
very important book.
John Conway
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Sun Mar 19 2000 - 21:07:05 EST