Re: [MATHEDCC] If factoring is not important

Sandy Wagner (sandyw@best.com)
Wed, 31 Mar 1999 11:18:38 -0800

Bret, first I'm only talking about polynomial factoring, not numerical or
common factor factoring. I see value in both of them for different reasons.
For polynomial factoring I think we should distinguish between the *process*
of finding factors and the theorems themselves. So few (essentially 0%) of
polynomials are factorable by pencil and paper that I think we waste a lot
of our time and our students' time with the processes when there are so many
more interesting and valuable things we could be doing. And remember, the
*only* places that trinomials are factored are in the math classroom and
(decreasingly so) on SAT's etc.. Ask any engineer.
-Sandy

At 12:43 PM 03/31/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Why are they called The FUNDAMENTAL Theorem of Arithmetic and The
>FUNDAMENTAL Theorem of Algebra? :-)
>
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