Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-10-01
A Bad Book.

A Bad Book.
And the name of it is French's Common
School Arithmetic. It is amazing that in
the year of grace 1873 man should write
q book with such glaring errors, and above
all is it wonderful that by the action of a
board of intelligent men the thing should be
" authorized" to q into the schools Of the
State to teach children that which is false
for that which is true.
Annual interest has been the rule in bust
ness transactions in this State for the better
part of fifty years; simple interest and COM
pound interest have been the exceptions.
Annual interest is simply interest payable
yearly. A debtor gives his note ior one
hundred dollars payable in two years with
annual interest. At the end of year be
pays six dollars interest and at the end of the
two years he pays the principal and six dol
lars interest. His contract has been fulfilled /;
he has paid the principal when he promised
to pay it and has payed his twelve dollars
annual interest. Had his note been on SIM
pie interest he would have paid the same
amount of interest, twelve dollars. but be
would have paid it at different time, all at
the end Of two years.
A debtor giving his note on two years time
for hundred dollars with annual interest
will, if be fails to pay the first years annual
interest until the note becomes due find him
self obliged to pay at the end of the two
years SIP SO; of which sum one hundred
dollars is principal, $l2 annual interest and
Sc cents simple interest on the first years
unpaid annual interest.
When DR.. French wrote his arithmetic he
evidently did not know what ANNUAL interest
was for be defines it on page 262 as being an
"allowance of simple interest for the use of
interest due" This definition would make
the thirty six cents and not the twelve dol
lars in the above example the ANNUAL interest.
The rule which follows this definition is SO
utterly vague that it gives no light on work
ing out the Doctors problems
In the course of time this arithmetic came
to be recommended for use in Vermont
schools and it was agreed that there should
be added number of pages for the purpose
of explaining annual interest They have
been added and we should like to see mem
Der of the board, be he college president OF
college professor, who can read the stuff
through without blush.
First We are cited from the body of the
work, where the old erroneous defnition lie
found. to the d" manual " which is at the be-
ginning. Turning to the " manual" we
are referred for a full explanation of this
matter to few pages at the end of the book
and once more thumbing the leaves We come
to the other side of Robin Hoods barn to
fnd-what ?-that annual interest is what it
isn't. In this carefully prepared appendix
we are told: |" Annual interest is the srt OF
simple interest on the principal, plus the
simple interest on each year interest of the
principal due and unpaid That is, re-
ferring once more to our former illustra-
ton, this revised definition would make
the whole $12.36 and not the $1,000 the
annual interest. The learned doctor has
fallen into the same error that Greenleaf
was in years ago. If he really wants to
know what annual interest is let him obtain
a copy of Whites Arithmetic and fad out.
But when the Secretary of our Board OF
Education comes to his rule for the case OF
partial payments 1.-THE only place where there
is the least difficulty in.computation) he sup
plements bad theory with bad practice
This rule, page 343, reads thus I" Find the
amount of the principal t, the end of the
first year in which a payment, either alone
or with payments previously made, equals OF
exceeds the annual interest due. Find the
amount of the payment or e sam of the
amounts OF tie payments, from their several
dates TO the same time: and subtract this
amount from the principal already found. The
remainder is new principal with which
proceed as beiore.''
| The author of this work has therefore moi
only failed to come to a comprehension o.
what annual interest is but is not to be trust
ed to work problem " in it, Let hin
" figure out according to bis rule the
amount due at maturity on a note of thou
sand dollars payable in four years with an
nual interest on which note there is an en-
dorsement at the end of two and half year
of one hundred dollars. Then let him 90 t
some man who can work simple examples il
annual interest and find out what is the tru,
sum due.
One more gem from this work and we ha v,
done. Annual interest at any other rat,
than six per cent lie Illegal And the mar
who says that is q " Doctor of LAVISH
The State Board of Education ought to b,
ashamed Of such work.