FreeMathTexts.org
FreeMathTexts RBA Text
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For people who want to learn or teach mathematics on
the basis of reason
instead of "how to do it methods", these texts can be freely downloaded,
used, copied, distributed and modified.
The texts on FreeMathTexts.org
- start from the idea that, if mathematics—at
least in the form most people are likely to have encountered—causes
anxiety, most of the time this is due to
the text: in the best cases because the text leaves
so much to "go without saying" that the reason
becomes invisible; in the
worst cases, when the text watered the mathematical contents down to
the vanishing point, because there can be no reason
whatsoever to the bunch of disparate, disconnected "topics" that is
left.
- proceed from the fact that mathematics derives from the real
world. For instance, logical consequence
is nothing but a reflection of real-world causality
and statements are true or false,
not because some book says so, but because the real world
makes them necessarily so.
While the mathematical
ideas underlying the texts on FreeMathTexts.org
are not particularly novel—they in fact echo ideas already found
in much
older texts, they are in such stark contrast to
those used nowadays in commercially available textbooks that, in
conformity with the Hestenes dictum,
"Early
in my career, I naively thought that if you give a good idea to
competent mathematicians or physicists, they will work out its
implications for themselves. I have learned since that most of them
need the implications spelled out in utter detail."
D.
Hestenes, Oersted Medal Lecture 2002,
p38.
most instructors are reluctant even to try these ideas,
however much easier to understand and to use they invariably are.
In an attempt to alleviate this
difficulty, the texts
on FreeMathTexts.org
are developed as integral part of packages
suitable for classroom use in that they include all that is needed, Homeworks,
Reviews,
Exams,
etc, in a form that makes it easy for the instructor to use.
As of this date, only Reasonable
Basic Algebra (RBA)
is available but several other packages are in preparation and
should be available before the end of the year.
Please do
not hesitate to write : The author welcomes any question,
suggestion, discussion, etc. Also,
should you wish to, you can be notified of (major) upgrades of
existing titles or addition of new titles.
There
are of course other possible approaches to mathematical
exposition
and, for instance, free texts that follow the Edmund Landau style of
presentation can be
found at OpenMathText.org.
More generally, there are several sites
in which free mathematical texts can be found such as Textbooks,
Lecture Notes and Tutorials in Mathematics, Online
Mathematics Textbooks, Online
Science and Math Textbooks, etc
And then there is iBerry, with Open
CourseWare and Higher Education Resources,
which describes itself as "the first academic porthole", that
is as
"a small but cheerful window in the side of the Higher Education ship
for purposes of illumination and enlightenment."
If you are having
any trouble with links or downloads,
please let me
know.
FreeMathTexts RBA Text
In
Preparation A2DC
Development
About
Acknowlegments
CopyLeft
LaTeX
Notes
Page Updated April 20, 2008