> <snip> As a teacher of mathematics, I'll admit that I've often
> needed to be able to add fractions. But I do not always regard myself as a
> mathematician, and it's not clear to me that all mathematicians need to add
> fractions to do mathematics. In particular, my PhD dissertation (functional
> analysis) never once required me to add fractions, and in my graduate level
> logic courses I noted that the logicians never even considered the rational
> numbers, identifying the reals with the irrationals.
Ok - despite my earlier having thoroughly disagreed with the notion that adding
fractions is not necessarily prerequisite to learning mathematics (and the horse
it rode in on) - I see that Dr. Yoshiwara is making a finer point: that not all
higher level mathematics involves adding fractions. This I readily concede.
Also, to my chagrin, I notice that Dr. Yoshiwara is probably one and the same
with the author of the fine intermediate algebra text we use at College of the
Desert. Thanks for text! I was able to get most of my students through all 10
chapters in the 6 week summer session. This, largely on account of the short
shrift given to the usual first chapter on "The Real Numbers." Instead we were
able to cover topics like conic sections and logarithms, which there was never
time for using the earlier texts where I'd spend several weeks at the beginning
laboring on about the natural numbers, the rationals, the irrationals, with lots
of (probably self-indulgent) asides regarding algebraic vs transcendental
irrationals. Oh well. Better they know the conic sections and logarithms...
Geoff Hagopian
Palm Desert, CA
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