The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1873-11-27
The Limit of Arithmetic.

To limit Arithmetic to its proper
sphere of usefulness. is difficult. 1t is
one of the most Important departments
OF common school education, and also
one of the most difficult works ofthe best
teachers. Arithmetic is defined 1.-The
science of numbers from which pupils
arc led to infer that arithmetic is the
goal or end of their studies: and our
compilers 1--WE have no authors) seem to
them to group into science all the scien-
ces or parts of sciences that come within
the range of common schools, thereby
leading not to utility, but confusion
That each science has limit and it's
own sphere of usefulness, is truth with
which every scholar is familiar, and that
all are in harmony is equally true. If
we range the world of Commerce from
the ship laden with tea from the
Celestial Empire, guano from the bleak
coasts of South America, or with mer
chandise from England or France, or our
produce to Europe, to the simple retail
dealer-nlI the appliances of trade all the
craft of mercantile life, Taxes, Duties.
Banking 6nd the calculations com.
mon 10 them in arithmetic. All the
transactions of to-day, aud for the year
901l, can be performed by Simple Pro-
portion or its notifications. The minor
rules are all a preparation for it; percen-
tage 10 all its variations is modification
of it. Hence proportion is the c ntre-
the Mirror or Grand Law Of Arithmetic
and not of arithmetic only, but of all the
memory be correct. Quackenbos, quoting
Kepler, says, in his natural philosophy,
:" the heavenly bodies are governed IN
their motions by the law of proportion
If we take the calculations ola ma
chine shop, with its wheels, belts. lathes,
&c, arithmetic as a science has nothing
to do with them. Let Us suppose farmer
Brown holds farm of 12O acres along
Albany Ave. and he sells to farmer
Jones so acres to be cut parallel to said
avenue /; can the surveyor cut it by
arithmetic ? Numbers are used, it is
true, in the Geometrical calculation, but
Arithmetic as a science cannot reach the
operation. It is clear, then, that arith-
metic is not the "science of numbers"
and it is equally clear that we are al
ready beyond its limit. We use .arith-
metic for commercial calculations, Ge-
ometry and Algebra combined for me-
chanical calculations, for Architecture
Engineering, comic sections for planes
and solids peculiar to them, and Astron-
omy for marine calculations and those
of the heavenly bodies.
Without pretending to a knowledge
beyond practical Common School life,
it may fairly be stated that each science
has a centre-a mirror, and that all are
harmony. The harmony of all is pro-
portion.
Whether we take the trader selling
Observation-Disclosures, sugar, teas, &C,
by the pound the surveyor measuring
land the engineer, the architect or the
mariner: we find, the merchant using
arithmetic, the others group of sciences
or combination OF all the sciences, ac-
cording TO the nature and the difficulty
of the thing to be investigated.
Thus we see arithmetic limited to
commerce, and also that our pupils
ought to be given to understand that |
the Common School, graded or not, is
only the Porch of the College,
ALIENS "SIIVER GLOSS STOVE |
oLIsu-Only six cents. Ask your
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