Vision in Elementary Mathematics (Dover Books on Mathematics)

By: W. W. Sawyer

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Synopsis: Here is a presentation of elementary mathematics that anyone can appreciate, especially anyone with a capacity for imagination. As the title suggests, the author's technique relies on visual elements, and his approach employs the most graphic and least forbidding aspects of mathematics. Most people, he observes, possess a direct vision that permits them to "see" the smaller numbers; with the larger numbers, however, vision fails and mental chaos ensues. In addressing this difficulty, both for those who like recreational mathematics and particularly for teachers, the author suggests a variety of methods already used by many effective teachers -- techniques of visualizing, dramatizing, and analyzing numbers that attract and retain the attention and understanding of children. His topics range from basic multiplication and division to algebra, encompassing word problems, graphs, negative numbers, fractions, and many other practical applications of elementary mathematics.