Mathematical Knowledge for Primary

Teachers 5th Edition Andrew Davis

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/mathematical-knowledge-for-primary-teachers-5th-edi
tion-andrew-davis/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Mathematics Explained for Primary Teachers 6 edition.

Edition Derek Haylock

https://textbookfull.com/product/mathematics-explained-for-
primary-teachers-6-edition-edition-derek-haylock/

Repositioning Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teachers

Knowledge for Teaching Science Anne Hume

https://textbookfull.com/product/repositioning-pedagogical-
content-knowledge-in-teachers-knowledge-for-teaching-science-
anne-hume/

Biology MYP 4 and 5 Andrew Davis and Patricia Duo

Hodder 2018 Andrew Davis And Patricia Deo

https://textbookfull.com/product/biology-myp-4-and-5-andrew-
davis-and-patricia-duo-hodder-2018-andrew-davis-and-patricia-deo/

Planning to Teach Writing A practical guide for primary

school teachers 1st Edition Emma Caulfield

https://textbookfull.com/product/planning-to-teach-writing-a-
practical-guide-for-primary-school-teachers-1st-edition-emma-
caulfield/
Handbook of Primary Care Ethics 1st Edition Andrew
Papanikitas

https://textbookfull.com/product/handbook-of-primary-care-
ethics-1st-edition-andrew-papanikitas/

Mathematical Modelling for Teachers A Practical Guide

to Applicable Mathematics Education Jürgen Maaß

https://textbookfull.com/product/mathematical-modelling-for-
teachers-a-practical-guide-to-applicable-mathematics-education-
jurgen-maas/

Modern Operating Systems, 5th Global Edition Andrew

Tanenbaum

https://textbookfull.com/product/modern-operating-systems-5th-
global-edition-andrew-tanenbaum/

The Rough Guide to Switzerland 5th Edition Andrew

Beattie

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-rough-guide-to-
switzerland-5th-edition-andrew-beattie/

Martin Davis on Computability Computational Logic and

Mathematical Foundations 1st Edition Eugenio G. Omodeo

https://textbookfull.com/product/martin-davis-on-computability-
computational-logic-and-mathematical-foundations-1st-edition-
eugenio-g-omodeo/
Mathematical Knowledge for
Primary Teachers
Fifth Edition

Now in its fifth edition, the best-selling text Mathematical Knowledge for Primary
Teachers provides trainee teachers with clear information about the fundamental
mathematical ideas taught in primary schools.
With rigorous and comprehensive coverage of all the mathematical knowledge primary
teachers need, the text goes beyond rules and routines to help readers deepen their
understanding of mathematical ideas and increase their confidence in teaching these
ideas. The book has been updated to incorporate changes in the National Curriculum
and the associated tests. In addition, Chapter 1 has been expanded to discuss
mathematical understanding in the light of the challenges posed by the current changes.
These include the re-introduction of traditional calculation methods for multiplication and
division, the early coverage of abstract fractions calculations and much more.
Features include:
■⌀ ‘Check’ questions to test the reader’s understanding
■⌀ ‘Challenges’ to increase teachers’ confidence and stretch their mathematical abilities
■⌀ ‘Links with the classroom’ to emphasise the relevance of ideas to the classroom
context
■⌀ Straightforward coverage from theory to practice for all aspects of the Mathematics
Framework.

The book is accompanied by a website which contains further visual activities and
support, designed to scaffold and support the reader’s own understanding. Essential
reading for all practising and trainee primary teachers, this book is ideal for those who
wish to increase their mathematical understanding and confidence in presenting
mathematics in the classroom.

Andrew Davis is an Honorary Research Fellow at Durham University School of Education.

Maria Goulding is a retired Mathematics Education lecturer who previously worked at

the Universities of Liverpool, Durham and York.

The late Jennifer Suggate researched Mathematics Education at Durham University

School of Education.
Mathematical Knowledge for
Primary Teachers
Fifth Edition

Andrew Davis, Maria Goulding

and Jennifer Suggate
Fifth edition published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2017 A. Davis, M. Goulding and J. Suggate

The right of A. Davis, M. Goulding and J. Suggate to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by David Fulton Publishers 1998

Fourth edition published by Routledge 2010

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Davis, Andrew, 1948- | Goulding, Maria. | Suggate, Jennifer.
Title: Mathematical knowledge for primary teachers / Andrew Davis, Maria Goulding, and Jennifer Suggate.
Description: 5th edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016039708| ISBN 9781138651333 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138651364 (pbk : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Mathematics--Study and teaching (Elementary)--Great Britain.
Classification: LCC QA135.5 .S8915 2017 | DDC 372.7/044--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039708

ISBN: 978-1-138-65133-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-65136-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62112-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Helvetica and Bembo

by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
 This fifth edition is dedicated to the memory of our
friend and co-author Jennifer Suggate, who died in 2010.

For Alan, Margaret and Pete

In gratitude for their unfailing help and encouragement.
 Contents

Note to fifth edition xi

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction1

PART ONE: SETTING THE SCENE 5

The nature and purpose of mathematics: brief remarks 5

1 Mathematical understanding 7
2 Language 21
Introduction21
The role of language in mathematical meaning 22
The role of language in constructing meaning 23
Types of mathematical talk 26
Coping with the unexpected 28
Talk between learners 30
Reading and writing mathematics 34
3 Problem solving and proof 36
Introduction36
Using mathematics in ‘real life’ situations 38
Using intuition 41
Problem posing in the classroom 43
Ways of approaching problems 44
Using reasoning 45
Using patterns 47
Always, sometimes or never true 50
Euclidean geometry 51
Proving from basic principles 53

vii
 Contents

PART TWO: NUMBER AND ALGEBRA 61

Introduction61
Importance of number 61
Nature and place of algebra 62

4 Properties of numbers and operations 64

Introduction64
Types of number 64
Operations69
Notation70
Index notation 72
Precedence74
Laws75
Patterns in natural numbers 78
5 Counting, place value, addition and subtraction 81
Counting81
Place value 85
Representing numbers 87
Addition and subtraction problems 90
Methods of calculation 94
Addition95
Subtraction99
6 Multiplication and division 107
Early meanings 107
Problem structure 108
Representing multiplication 119
Methods of calculation 120
Multiplication122
Large numbers 126
Division127
7 Integers 139
Definitions139
Models140
Addition and subtraction 141
8 Fractions, decimals and percentages 148
Practical need for numbers smaller than one 148
Rational fractions 149
Fractions as operators 150
Equivalent fractions 150
Operations on and with fractions 153
Decimals (decimal fractions) 156
Operations on and with decimals 158
Percentages160
Operations on and with percentages 160

viii
 Contents

9 Understanding algebra 166

Nature of algebra 166
Doing and undoing 168
Sequences171
Equations176
10 Graphs and functions 182
Coordinates182
Line graphs 183
Functions185

PART THREE: MEASUREMENT 189

Introduction189
General principles of measurement 189
Types of scale 191
Standard units 191
Approximate nature of measurement 192

11 Length 194
Definition and units 194
Issues arising 197
Calculating lengths 199
12 Area 204
Definition and units 204
Issues arising 206
Calculating areas 207
13 Capacity and volume 216
Definition and units 216
Issues arising 217
Calculating volumes 217
14 Mass and weight 221
Definition and units 221
Issues arising 222
Calculations224
15 Angles and compass directions 226
Definitions226
Compass directions 227
Units of angle 228
Issues arising 228
Calculations229
16 Time 234
Definition and units 234
Issues arising 235
Rates239

ix
 Contents

PART FOUR: SHAPE 243

17 2-D shape 245
Classifying 2-D shapes 246
Introduction to 2-D symmetry 252
‘Similar’ and ‘congruent’ 255
18 2-D shape applications and investigations 259
Tessellations259
Transformations and Cartesian geometry 264
Some constructions 265
19 3-D shape 269
2-D and 3-D 269
Some important 3-D shape families 269
Euler’s rule 272
Exploring nets 273
Some 3-D shapes with curved surfaces 274
Planes of symmetry in 3-D shapes 274

PART FIVE: DATA HANDLING 277

Introduction277
Data handling 277
Probability277

20 Data handling 279

Introduction279
Posing questions 279
Collecting data 280
Analysing data 281
Presenting results 283
Interpreting results 293
Use of computers 294
21 Probability 297
Introduction297
Language297
Working out probabilities 298

Endpiece 309
Appendix A – The Numeracy Professional Skills Tests – topics covered
in support materials 312
Appendix B – Using the programmes on the companion website 313
Glossary 314
Formulae 323
Index 325

x
 Note to fifth edition

A major change in this edition is the expanded coverage of mathematical knowledge and
understanding in Chapter 1. Other modifications have been made throughout the text in
the light of changes in the National Curriculum and the associated testing regime, together
with the government’s decision to bring an end to the National Numeracy Strategy.

Andrew Davis and Maria Goulding

xi
 Acknowledgements

We are all a product of our own histories and are rarely aware of all the people and
experiences that have influenced us, so in a real sense it is impossible to acknowledge all the
sources of ideas in this book. We have acknowledged those of which we are conscious, and
we hope others will forgive our lapses of memory. Of those we can name, we must first
mention students in the School of Education in Durham over the years. By their enthusiastic
questioning they have inspired us to think in new ways about the mathematics we use. This
book is written primarily for them.
Although the responsibility for any mistakes rests firmly with us, we are most grateful to
those who kindly read drafts and pointed out errors and inconsistencies. First among these
is the late Brian Woodhouse, our former colleague at Durham, who also helped to develop
our ideas over many years. Thanks also to Tim Rowland for supporting the book and for
helping us clarify our ideas on subtraction and difference. Alan Suggate, Margaret Davis and
Sue Smith have all made invaluable suggestions for clarification and improvement.

xiii
 Introduction

This book has been written especially for those preparing to be teachers in primary schools
who need support in developing their mathematical subject knowledge. The fifth edition
has been prepared at a time of radical change in the primary maths curriculum, largely
driven by the content of National Curriculum tests. Primary schools that have become
academies are not obliged to follow the National Curriculum, but their pupils are subjected
to the current testing regime.
Some key changes which constitute fundamental challenges to primary teachers include
requirements that all children master specific algorithms such as long multiplication, short
division and long division, together with quite abstract calculations with fractions at a very
early stage in their life at school. The changes raise important issues about the nature of the
mathematical knowledge that children should be gaining during their seven years at primary
school, and, accordingly, about the knowledge of the subject that their teachers need to
bring to the task. This point is so important that the fifth edition of Mathematical Knowledge
for Primary Teachers discusses these issues in some depth.
The knowledge of mathematics required by those intending to teach either Key Stage 1
or Key Stage 2 children differs significantly from that developed and tested by traditional
GCSE courses, or by conventional higher education mathematics courses. Accordingly,
both the content and the style of this book set it apart from mathematics texts used in
secondary schools.
There is much about teaching mathematics which this book does not cover. At regular
intervals, sections entitled ‘Links with the classroom’ suggest connections between the
material presented at an adult level and the contexts in which young children are learning
mathematics. However, these connections concentrate on how teachers’ knowledge is
likely to impinge on the way they might explain mathematics to children or question
children about mathematics.
You should look elsewhere for a comprehensive treatment of the teaching of the topics
covered here, but at the same time you may well consult this book on occasion when
planning specific lessons. This is because there are classic topics such as fractions which

1
 Introduction

challenge the subject knowledge of many teachers. If this challenge cannot be met, lesson
plans will suffer accordingly.
As befits a self-study text, there are many collections of exercises. These are an integral
part of the book. Answers to these exercises may be found on the companion website
www.routledge.com/eresources/9780415559232. A deliberate attempt has been made to
indicate connections and interconnections between many of the concepts. This reflects our
view of the nature of mathematics itself, and a little more will be said about this in Chapter 1.
The book also contains a comprehensive glossary of terms used. In some cases this simply
duplicates material within chapters, but we make no apology for that.
The companion website also contains a ‘self-audit test’ designed to help readers to assess
their own level of mathematical ability, as well as answers to all the ‘check’ questions dotted
throughout the text.
Each part of the book offers an introduction to the several chapters immediately
following. The organisation of the next few chapters is explained, and the introduction also
outlines some general principles which are then developed in detail in the relevant chapters.
In addition to finding your way through this book in various directions, we also hope
that you will develop and practise your skills in mental arithmetic and in estimating the
answers to calculations. For detailed discussion of these matters see especially Part Two.
Developing and practising number skills of this kind is much closer to working on athletic
skills than you might suppose. You may surprise yourself with just how skilful you become
after a period of regular practice.
Just now we used the word ‘learn’ rather than ‘revise’, and perhaps some of you will find
that inappropriate. You may deem yourselves perfectly competent mathematicians, and feel
that you are only turning to this book to revisit one or two things. You may feel like
reminding us that you have your GCSE grade C or better; otherwise you would not have
been accepted on your teaching qualification course.
If so, we hope to persuade you to think a little differently. This book is emphatically not
a GCSE revision text. The precise subject knowledge that supports effective primary
teaching is a complex and still controversial issue, which will be explored further in
Chapter 1. At the moment we can state firmly that the knowledge required certainly does
not equate with that needed for GCSE. It is both much more and less. This seemingly
paradoxical claim will also be discussed in Chapter 1.
Mathematics has a difficult place in the emotions of many highly intelligent learners.
Some of our readers may have been mentally scarred by past experiences of failure. This is
probably associated with incompetent and insensitive teaching. Is such teaching especially
likely in the case of mathematics? It has often been suggested, rather uncharitably, that the
subject actually attracts a disproportionate number of teachers lacking perception and insight.
This book cannot settle how much truth that suggestion contains, but part of the problem
may lie in the kind of understanding which the mathematics teacher has of his or her subject,
and in consequence the type of understanding that he or she attempts to develop in pupils.
Such a hypothesis underlies the approach in this book, and as we will see in Chapter 1, it is
borne out by recent research into what makes an effective teacher of numeracy.
A different kind of problem that some adults experience when returning to learning
mathematics is that when they were younger they were not allowed to fail when tackling

2
 Introduction

the subject. Their teachers made the learning too ‘safe’. However, for a number of perfectly
intelligent people some fairly basic mathematics can prove quite tough, at least when first
encountered. It may be argued that it is no bad thing for pupils to experience ‘supported’
failure, coming to appreciate that in trying to grasp certain ideas or to solve certain kinds of
problems in mathematics, a substantial level of mental effort may be required. Failure, at
least in the first instance, is not the end of the world. Certain kinds of failure, handled
correctly, seem to be almost essential for real learning to take place.
While much of this book should prove straightforward to most readers, there are some
more challenging sections, especially perhaps in Chapter 3 which deals with proof. ‘Proof’
is relatively unfamiliar, even to those who were successful in A level mathematics. You can
always study other chapters and return to Chapter 3 if you find it rather heavy going at first.
We have been thinking about mathematics subject knowledge at Durham for many
years, and our current perspective on the form that knowledge should take has not been
easily won. Tutors providing professional mathematics courses at Durham had long been
unhappy with aspects of students’ subject knowledge. At the same time, we lacked detailed
knowledge of what they actually knew about mathematics. Hence we were not in the best
position to judge whether our courses fitted student needs.
In a well-intentioned but rash venture, we decided to find out what the students knew
about some aspects of algebra. We devised a written test. We were well aware of the
limitations of written assessment and of how, taken alone, a written test could not probe
understanding of mathematics in any kind of depth. The test was intended to be supplemented
by follow-up interviews between tutors and Secondary PGCE students. Since we wished to
discover what our students knew as such, rather than what they knew after some kind of
revision, we did not inform them in advance but sprang the test upon them. We made it very
clear that the test results would in no way count as part of their degree classification, and that
we simply wanted to probe their understanding to help us deliver effective maths courses, but
this did nothing to placate them. They were angry and resentful. Some queried the level of
subject knowledge we were investigating. We looked at mathematics roughly up to Key
Stage 3 of the National Curriculum, and the students felt that they simply did not need that
level of knowledge to be able to teach effectively to the top of Key Stage 2. In the light of
these vehemently expressed sentiments, one Secondary PGCE student wondered wryly why
she was expected to have a degree in mathematics to teach up to A level in the subject.
As tutors we certainly felt vulnerable; we had a vague conviction that the students should
be at least a few steps ahead of the pupils, but we were unable to defend a requirement for
any particular ‘level’ of subject knowledge. Indeed, it became increasingly clear that the
notion of a ‘level’ of knowledge was pretty unhelpful when trying to think of the subject
expertise required by a good primary mathematics teacher. Moreover, it was by no means
evident that intending Key Stage 2 teachers needed ‘more’ mathematical knowledge than
those teaching at Key Stage 1. If anything, the latter needed a deeper grasp than the former.
Yet another burden of complaint voiced by our student victims was that they should have
been told about the test in advance, because they could have revised for it and obtained
higher scores. It was many years, they said, since they had taken their GCSE mathematics,
and they had forgotten much. In vain did we protest that the scoring was irrelevant, and that
part of what we wished to know was just how much they had forgotten. Their feelings

3
 Introduction

about the subject and about being tested were so strong that they did not believe us.
Incidentally, it was fascinating to discover the variation in ‘forgetting’ between students
who had taken the same GCSE at the same time and obtained the same grade.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can see why we provoked such a hostile reaction, and
we can understand how we might have handled matters differently, at least in some ways.
Fundamentally, we had underestimated the emotional baggage that adult students of
mathematics frequently bring with them to the enterprise.
This book is written many years on from that traumatic episode. Its writers have now
gained extensive experience of trying to help students feel better about the subject and
overcome a range of mental ‘blocks’, especially relating to algebra and fractions. Students
have even been detected having some fun in connection with such topics!
An explicit subject knowledge element in the professional mathematics courses for
prospective primary teachers is now well established at Durham. These components have
been gradually extended and refined. It was clear from the start of this development that
what was needed differed significantly from mathematics courses found either in Secondary
Schools or at Higher Education level. Indeed, we had a PGCE student with a first-class
degree in mathematics who turned out to lack some of the basic understanding that our
subject knowledge course was designed to promote, and which we felt was essential for all
students teaching at Key Stages 1 and 2.
We now have a better idea of the quality of subject knowledge that supports teachers in
explaining mathematics to young children. We have a greater appreciation of what is
needed to inform the teacher questioning that is likely to stimulate mathematical
understanding, and indeed to support all aspects of interactive whole-class teaching. Once
students begin to develop this kind of knowledge themselves, we are confident that they
can readily see the value of it. They are motivated to acquire more, through self-study, peer
tutoring or directly from tutors. We hope that this book will facilitate all these processes.

Note on references
We have made a conscious decision not to sprinkle the text with many detailed academic
references. The book is not an academic research text, although of course we hope that the
material offered here is properly informed by relevant professional and academic literature.

4
 PART

1
Setting the scene

Much of this book looks systematically at specific areas of mathematical content. However,
Part One differs in that it discusses a number of wider issues, some of which have already
been raised in the introduction. The first three chapters examine aspects of mathematical
knowledge in general, Chapter 1 taking up the theme of knowledge and understanding in
mathematics, Chapter 2 dealing with language and Chapter 3 with problem solving and
proof.

The nature and purpose of mathematics: brief remarks

If this were a very different work, a good deal of fascinating but abstruse discussion could
be devoted to analysing the nature of mathematics. Despite the ‘absolute’-seeming character
of the subject, there is no consensus of opinion as to its nature. Bertrand Russell remarks:
‘mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking
about, nor whether what we are saying is true’ (Russell, 1917, pp. 59–60). In the light of
this, it is perhaps puzzling that he also observes in another essay in the same volume:
‘Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold
and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without
the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern
perfection such as only the greatest art can show’ (Russell, 1917, p. 49).
Knowledge, including knowledge of mathematics, is seen very differently by some
writers in what is known as the ‘situated cognition’ tradition: ‘Learners … participate in
communities of practitioners and … the mastery of knowledge and skill requires newcomers
to move towards full participation in the sociocultural practices of a community’ (Lave and
Wenger, 1991, p. 29).
In this tradition, learning mathematics might be compared to an apprenticeship, with all
the human and fallible trappings that this process seems to imply. The writers of this book
also see mathematics as a human construction. We view learning mathematics as a process
in which pupils, partly through interaction with those who are in possession of fuller
versions, are helped to construct an understanding of the subject. It is less clear than some

5
 Setting the scene

claim that this wholly rules out Russell’s perspective as expressed in the ‘supreme beauty’
quotation, but no more can be said about that here. Readers who are interested might try
Ernest (1991) for one verdict on this argument.
For many children mathematics offers its own intrinsic satisfactions, but it also has
essentially practical applications in everyday life. It enables us to communicate thinking and
reasoning about number, quantity, shape and space. It embodies a precise language in which
technological and scientific claims can be made. Those working in the field of the expressive
arts also may make use of mathematics – design and architecture are two obvious examples.
We now turn to a consideration of the knowledge and understanding that we hope to
develop when teaching primary mathematics, and of the knowledge and understanding
needed by teachers to bring about such a development.

References
Ernest, P. (1991) The Philosophy of Mathematics Education. London: Falmer Press.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Russell, B. (1917) Mysticism and Logic. London: Unwin Books.

6
CHAPTER

1
Mathematical understanding

Some who wish to teach mathematics to young children have the wrong kind of
understanding of their subject. It is not that they know too little, though they may, but
rather that their knowledge is not of an appropriate kind. Many years ago the psychologist
Richard Skemp coined a distinction between two sorts of understanding. He described and
contrasted what he called ‘relational understanding’ and ‘instrumental understanding’. His
distinction can help us grasp the nature of the knowledge of mathematics that primary
teachers should seek (Skemp, 1989).
Suppose Anna and Sarah are making their way to a wedding in a town which is unfamiliar
to them. Each have been supplied by the host with a series of directions: ‘Left after the first
roundabout on the way into town, under the railway bridge, third right, past the park and
second left by the hypermarket. The church is on the right a few hundred yards down that
road.’ Anna has no map of the town, whereas Sarah has one and she can read it. If Anna
meticulously follows the directions supplied, she will make it to the wedding. However, it
only needs one slip for her to be lost. Sheer chance may still bring success, but she is more
likely to circle the roads in a state of increasing frustration and panic. How blessed is Sarah
in comparison. She can follow the directions with confidence, knowing that if she strays,
she has a remedy. This may mean that she is less likely to go wrong in the first place. If she
does make a mistake, she can find her way back to the sequence of directions, or even pick
out a new way to the church.
Anna’s situation models the instrumental understanding that many of us possess in respect
of our mathematics. We may know what to do to obtain the right answer, but we only
know one way of doing so, and we have little idea why our sequence of moves is sensible.
If we go wrong, we may not be able to recover. We have no other route to the solution.
We lack the understanding that might enable us to solve the problem in our own way. We
are likely to be in possession of a number of mathematical rules that we implement ‘without
reason’. Certain examples have become classics and are usually quoted in this connection.
Here are a few of them: to divide fractions, ‘turn upside down and multiply’; when dealing
with equations, if you ‘change the side you change the sign’; and to multiply by 10, ‘add a
zero’. (This one is not even universally correct, of course.)

7
 Setting the scene

In contrast, Sarah offers an analogy for those who have relational understanding of their
mathematics. She has a map. Armed with a ‘cognitive map’ of the relevant mathematics,
those with relational understanding are able to find a number of ways to solve a given
problem. If they forget a particular procedure, or make a mistake in it, they can use and
even construct an alternative route.
Some have understood Skemp to be extolling the virtues of relational understanding at
the expense of instrumental understanding. In this book about subject knowledge in
mathematics, we take the view that both kinds of understanding are important. Indeed, we
do not assume that there is a sharp division between instrumental and relational understanding.
Knowing rules and procedures can be extremely useful and efficient. However, they need
to be embedded within a rich relational understanding of the concepts concerned. Without
this understanding, as Skemp points out, much strain is placed on the memory, and feelings
of frustration and panic are more likely. Moreover, people who are restricted to an
instrumental understanding of mathematics cannot ‘use and apply’ it. They can only
implement the procedure in contexts which closely resemble the situations in which they
were taught. For instance, they can do ‘long division’ with paper and pencil, but are unable
to work out how many dollars they will get for their pounds when they take a holiday in
the States. This may be the case even though the calculation required would in fact be a
division operation involving numbers for which a long division approach might be
appropriate. Their mathematics is rigid and inert. Those whose knowledge is limited in this
way may consider mathematics to be a pointless and tedious subject. Indeed, given that kind
of knowledge, you might argue that they have every justification for such an attitude. This
is hardly a desirable state of mind for a primary teacher who plays a significant part in
shaping not only what young children know about mathematics but also how they feel
about the subject.
It can be illuminating to link Skemp’s distinction to constructivist approaches to learning,
and to learning mathematics in particular. However, in order to grasp the nature of this link
we have to face up to some challenges. The term ‘constructivism’ covers a multitude of sins
and virtues. Accordingly, we devote some space in this chapter to elaborating and defending
a particular perspective on this multifaceted idea. It is especially important to do this in the
light of the recent changes in the prescribed mathematics content for primary schools in
England. We are hoping that these changes prove to be temporary, since they are in tension
with the kind of constructivism defended in this book.
Piaget is held to be one of the fathers of constructivism. It is far from clear that he is the
true ancestor of all its instantiations, and some of them would not be to his credit. However,
one of his important contributions is his characterization of the interface between what a
learner already knows and understands, and new knowledge. David Ausubel (1968) wrote
in a similar vein: ‘If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I
would say this: The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner
already knows.’
Piaget used his notions of assimilation and accommodation to describe two fundamental
aspects of learning. The learner’s existing knowledge must become related to new content
if her grasp of the fresh material is to be richer than rote learning. To ‘take it in’ so as to
transcend mere rote absorption, she must assimilate it. The fresh content must acquire a

8
 Mathematical understanding

place on her existing cognitive map. In gaining a location, this content acquires all kinds of
relationships with other content that is already on her map.
A young child already knows a little about cats. She has encountered them, so she knows
that they eat, drink, purr and meow. Now she sees a cow, and attempts to place it, so to
speak, on her existing cognitive map, where a range of cat elements are already comfortably
situated and connected. The cow eats and drinks. So far, so good. This represents her efforts
to assimilate the cow knowledge. However, she has to digest the fact that the cow is bigger
than a cat, makes a different noise from cats and lacks fur, unlike cats. So she has to
accommodate this new knowledge. That is to say, her existing knowledge and understanding
has to undergo some changes in order to deal with the new content. The cow must be
placed on her cognitive map in a way that makes it clear that it is not a new kind of cat.
We now turn to a primary mathematics example to illustrate these points. Parveen, a
Year 4 pupil, already has some rich knowledge and understanding of basic arithmetic. For
instance, she understands three-figure numbers and why they are written conventionally as
hundreds, tens and units. She is familiar with the representation of numbers on a number
line. She grasps the foundations of the four operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division, and knows at least something of their interrelationships. She is now treated to
a splendid series of lessons about fractions. The models of fractions she encounters include
cakes and pizzas divided into sections, and the idea of halves and quarters of small groups
such as a half of 12 and a quarter of 16. One day the teacher demonstrates that fractions can
be represented on a number line: they can be allocated positions between the whole
numbers. So this new possibility must be added to Parveen’s existing conceptions of what a
number line can represent. That is to say, Parveen must assimilate it. However, her existing
conceptions cannot embrace such a possibility without change. The new ideas challenge her
grasp of the number system. From now on, numbers are not merely those whole numbers
that can be used for counting. They are also ways of indicating measurements and quantities.
We can have one and a half glasses of milk, or three quarters of a metre of string. The shock
waves of these insights reverberate throughout her existing conceptions of number and
arithmetic. The latter conceptions begin to undergo some fairly radical changes. That is to
say, she begins to accommodate the new content.
One problem with this outline of assimilation and accommodation is that it may appear
to represent Piaget as recommending styles of teaching and learning. Over the last few
decades, many educators have taken Piaget as doing just that. This book is not the place to
explore such issues in any detail, but more needs to be said about the elements of
constructivism that inform our approach. We are not defending constructivism as a style of
teaching and learning, but rather as an account of the very nature of learning.
To develop such an account, we first consider the kind of ‘learning’ that could take place
in the absence of what Piaget describes. Rote learning might prove to be a useful stalking horse
here, though it will have to be considered in an implausibly extreme form. Imagine a four-
year-old child repeatedly being told that hadrons are made of quarks. It might be held that she
has come to ‘know’ it in some kind of way. For instance, if asked what her mother had told
her several times earlier in the day, she could respond that hadrons are made of quarks.
However, there is virtually no scope in this situation for connections with other knowledge
that the child already possesses. Of course, she will have experienced some instances of one

9
 Setting the scene

thing being said to be ‘made of’ another. Hence, she might grasp that her bricks are made of
wood, or that her spoon is made of plastic. Yet such examples give no clue whatever to what
a physicist might mean when claiming that hadrons are made of quarks. Our child cannot
manifest her hadron knowledge in any other way than that already suggested – answering her
mother’s question if it is framed in words that trigger her minimal response.
These remarks are not factual points about how a child learns. They are conceptual points
about the nature of knowledge. So, are we saying that our four-year-old child lacks all
knowledge of hadrons? Well, if we want to call the child’s answer to her mother a
manifestation of knowledge, then, of course, we can. However, that would be a pretty
misleading way of talking about what the child has gained from her mother. It is very
evident that this is not the kind of knowledge that the primary teacher (or indeed, any of
us, surely) wishes for her pupils in mathematics. Their subject knowledge needs to be
applicable to a whole range of situations, both abstract and in the everyday world. They
cannot apply it in this virtually unlimited variety of ways unless it is appropriately connected
to other knowledge in their possession.
Such connectedness, together with the linked possibilities of use and application, are, of
course, matters of degree. In learning, children do not suddenly acquire connections in a
momentary spasm of cognition. They will gradually accumulate such connections, and these
will undergo constant revision as yet more new content is assimilated and accommodated.
We need to relate these constructivist reflections to some recent history in primary
mathematics, and to say more about why we do hope that some of the current ‘reforms’ are
very temporary. To over-simplify the last few decades, before the 1960s, primary mathematics
was dominated by whole-class teaching from the front, rote learning of arithmetic facts such
as multiplication tables, and traditional calculation algorithms that included subtraction with
‘borrowing’, long multiplication, and both ‘long’ and ‘short’ division. Eventually, many
teachers and researchers began to react against this. It was noticed that many children were
spending countless hours being taught algorithms, yet they either never achieved competence,
or they lost it almost as soon as they acquired it. Research into adult mathematics carried out
around the time of the Cockcroft Report in 1982 showed that many intelligent educated
adults lacked mastery of, for instance, the long division algorithm.
One school of thought (with which the authors of this book strongly sympathise) was that
these problems stemmed from the basic fact that many children and adults had never
understood the calculation methods. They had been given ‘rules without reason’. Alternative
approaches began to be offered, informed by a rationale that pupils should have at least some
chance of understanding what they were being taught. In England, these fresh perspectives
included government initiatives such as the National Numeracy Strategy. One of the ways in
which understanding was centre stage in these developments was the explicit attention
devoted to mental arithmetic. This was a wider conception of mental arithmetic than merely
being able to recite known number facts at speed. Pupils were encouraged to develop a
flexible range of mental strategies on which they could draw when solving certain kinds of
arithmetic problems. Mental arithmetic is particularly important in the context of these
reflections. Surely you cannot be good at mental arithmetic if your understanding is little more
than minimal. You cannot make an intelligent choice from an extensive repertoire of strategies
unless such strategies are well ensconced on your cognitive maps of arithmetic concepts. For

10
 Mathematical understanding

instance, confronted with a subtraction problem, the pupil engaged in a mental calculation
decides whether to ‘count on’, ‘count back’, whether to do so in chunks of tens, hundreds,
and so on. Such decisions are impossible without a connected grasp of the number system, of
the relationship between addition and subtraction, and much else.
Early on in the retreat from rules without reason, the subtraction method known as
‘equal addition’ was replaced by ‘decomposition’, since this could more readily be explained
by appealing to pupils’ existing grasp of place value. It is important to note that in the
absence of the latter, decomposition could easily be a matter of following rules without
grasping their rationale, just as equal addition had always been for many pupils. (See Chapter
5 for detailed commentaries on both equal addition and decomposition methods.)

53 53 53 53
4 1 1 4 1 1

– 28 – 28
3
– 28 – 28
3

25 25 25 25

Decomposition Equal Addition

Moreover, long and short division were also made less prominent in this retreat.

895 remainder 22
24 21502
1 1

192 2 1
230
216
142
120
22

Traditional long division

These methods were still taught, but there was no suggestion that all pupils should be taught
them by the time they were 11. Instead, as many as possible were taught ‘chunking’ as an
alternative to both short and long division. Chunking involved a focus on one particular
aspect of the concept of division – namely, viewing it as repeated subtraction. This strategy
was flexible, allowing students to deal with the subtractions a ‘chunk’ at a time, where they
could choose the size of the chunk depending on their existing knowledge of numbers. (See
Chapter 6 for more details.)

31 10 × 24 = 240
24 744 10 × 24 = 240
–240 10 × 24 = 240
504
–240 31 sets of 24 in 744 altogether
264
–240
24

An example of chunking

11
 Setting the scene

Suppose the division was 744 divided by 24. One interpretation of this problem is that
it asks how many times 24 can be subtracted from 744. Some students would decide to
subtract ten lots of 24 at a time from the 744. They would proceed to subtract three of these
‘chunks’ – that is to say, three of the ten lots of 24. By this point, then, they would have
subtracted 30 lots of 24. Having taken 240 from 744 three times (therefore taking a total of
720), they then take account of the final 24. Thirty lots of 24, plus just one more 24 gives
the definitive answer to the division problem, namely 31. Other students will reach this
answer more rapidly by handling 30 × 24 as one chunk.
Chunking was never supposed to be a practical skill that might be used in the supermarket.
Rather, it illustrated what was going on in division calculations involving numbers for
which a mental strategy would be too much of a challenge, and did so in a way that the vast
majority of pupils could understand in their own terms. The intention here was that when
division calculations became complicated beyond a particular point, it was intelligent to
reach for the calculator.
Viewed through the lenses of assimilation, accommodation and Skemp’s cognitive maps,
the ‘chunking’ approach allows students to perform division calculations with the support
of their existing knowledge and understanding. They can assimilate and accommodate
chunking itself so that it acquires a coherent location on their cognitive map.
The dangers inherent in the traditional long and short division algorithms are that some
students can make few if any links between their skills with these specific procedures and
their existing knowledge of arithmetic. Needless to say, this is always a matter of degree. For
any kind of success with these calculation methods, they certainly must have some grasp of
the number system.
The historic move away from traditional algorithms had little to do with claims that they
were of no use to anyone, or that they were no more efficient than any of their more
informal replacements. Those pupils who could readily acquire sufficient understanding of
both short and long division were in possession of very useful tools. ‘Sufficient understanding’
in this connection implies that they could use and apply these tools flexibly and intelligently
in a good range of contexts.
It is worth noting that in our experience, many ITT students feel that any opposition to
rules without reason is misplaced. Typical comments include: ‘I learned the method at the
time. I did not understand then, but I do now. I gradually filled in the gaps in my understanding.
You cannot grasp all this stuff instantly. Teach children the rules – don’t be obsessive about
whether they understand at the time. It will sort itself out by the time they are grown up.’
Our response to such comments generally runs as follows:

‘You are, broadly speaking, representatives of the most able in our society, or you would
not be here as students in the first place. We are delighted that you were able to figure
out the whys and wherefores of the calculation methods. Sadly, many other adults are
never able to do that. Our point is supported by research on adult competence in
traditional algorithms.’

We turn now to some reflections on teaching styles, since they go to the heart of the
kind of mathematical knowledge that primary teachers should be concerned to develop in

12
 Mathematical understanding

children. So-called constructivist approaches to teaching and learning have long been
associated with progressivist or child-centred education, and even with so-called ‘Discovery
Learning’. Ideal types, or rather, caricatures, are legion here. Direct Instruction is sometimes
characterised as in some way ‘opposite’ to Discovery Learning. On the former perspective,
teachers might be described as teaching material ‘directly’, rather than engineering situations
in which pupils are helped or stimulated to discover the material for themselves. For
example, a teacher can tell pupils that the angles in a triangle always add up to 180 degrees.
This would be a short and unambitious instance of Direct Instruction. In an allegedly
contrasting ‘discovery’ approach, pupils can be asked to cut out triangles, to tear off the
corners and then put them together to form a straight line. They would need to try this for
several cases, before ‘seeing’ that there is a general rule here.

Of course, they would need to ‘know’ that the angle at a point on a ‘straight angle’ is
equivalent to 180 degrees. This would have to be so if the knowledge they acquire is to be
equivalent to the results of successful ‘Direct Instruction’.
(Incidentally, there is of course the possibility of a modified type of ‘Direct Instruction’
in which the teacher declines to let pupils loose on scissors and paper, but demonstrates
‘from the front’ the process of tearing the corners from triangles and putting them together
to form ‘straight line angles’.)
We need to pause for breath here. Just how might pupils come to know that a straight
angle is equivalent to 180 degrees? Pupils could not possibly ‘know’ it without being told
this directly. There is no real way in which they could be helped by the teacher to discover
this for themselves. This is partly because of the very nature of the relevant content.
Measuring angles in degrees has a venerable history, but it is, of course, a matter of human
convention. It is not written somehow into the fabric of a platonic mathematical reality,
awaiting human discovery.
In addition, when pupils are asked to cut out triangles they cannot follow this instruction
unless they already know that shapes with certain properties are called triangles. They also
need to grasp that the word ‘triangle’ does not label an image.

13
 Setting the scene

In terms of images, some triangles do not closely resemble others. The term ‘triangle’ is
defined in terms of certain properties of 2D plane shapes. Moreover, the particular word used
is a matter of convention. Again, they cannot discover this for themselves, though there might
be certain steps they could be encouraged to take for themselves that enable them to ‘realise’
that ‘triangle’ is the label being applied to shapes with three straight sides and three corners.
For instance, they might be shown a computer animation in which a pile of shapes were
sorted into several sets. They could then be asked to look and see what was common to the
shapes in one of these sets. If they were able to point out that they all had three straight sides
and three corners, they could then be told that all of these were called triangles.
Such examples drive a coach and horses through any idea that there is a simple binary
opposition between ‘Direct Instruction’ and ‘Discovery Learning’, and that either of these
approaches is capable of a simple and pure characterisation. The devil is always in the detail.
Consider another mathematics example. Pupils – in Year 6 or Year 7, perhaps – are
shown one example of a triangle that can be formed on a 3 × 3 pin board, and then asked
to investigate how many different triangles can be made on such a board. It is stipulated that
corners of triangles must be pins and that no corners should be placed anywhere on the
board other than on pins. The task is, of course, deliberately ambiguous. The class is divided
into groups, each of which must work together independently of the others. Sometimes
several pupils will protest, early in their enquiries, that they have not been told by the
teacher what ‘different’ is supposed to mean. The teacher will respond that they must agree
together on a definition of the term, and then investigate accordingly. After a period of
investigation the teacher draws all the pupils together and asks them to report back. It is
probable that a range of answers to the original question will be offered, depending on
whether, for instance, triangles in different positions or orientations on the board are
counted as ‘different’, whether similar triangles are counted as different, and so on.
Triangles are congruent if they have exactly the same three sides and exactly the same
three angles. One will fit on the other, though rotation and reflection might be needed.

Three congruent triangles

Eight non-congruent triangles on 3 × 3 pin boards

14
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 See (in this volume)
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.

SAN FRANCISCO: A. D. 1898.

New city charter.

A city charter of a quite new and experimental character was

adopted by popular vote in May, to go into effect at the
beginning of the year 1900. Its main features were described
at the time by the "New York Tribune," as follows:

"The formation of this charter is an advanced example of the

exercise of municipal home rule. The constitution of
California gives the cities of the state the uncommon
privilege of framing their own charters subject simply to the
veto power of the legislature. Exercising that right, the
people, acting through fifteen free-holders, elected for that
purpose, have drawn up the new charter. … If the legislature
approves, it will become the local constitution. The charter
provides for its own amendment by the people without appeal to
the legislature. So the present provisions of that instrument
may be only a form to be entirely remodeled by the city at its
own pleasure until it has no resemblance to the laws to which the
state authorities gave approval. That is an extreme delegation
of powers, such as we think has never before been made in an
American state. The mayor has large powers of appointment and
removal. He can suspend all elected officers except the
supervisors—the city legislators—who may remove those whom he
suspends, and he may remove at any time for cause all
appointive officers. The elective list is large, for, though
there are only eighteen supervisors, the number of places
filled by election each year is thirty. This is a great
departure from the charter-making practice recently prevalent,
which has tended to the election of only a few administrative
officers who are responsible for the selection of agents in
different departments. Attempt is made to centre
responsibility in the mayor, but the supervisors and the
 people both can pass ordinances likely to interfere with that
responsibility. So the charter is as far as possible from
inaugurating the one-man power, which has been much advocated
as the cure for the ills which spring from a municipal
administration animated by no uniform purpose or
intelligence."

SAN JUAN HILL, Battle of.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

SAND RIVER CONVENTION, The.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (THE TRANSVAAL): A. D. 1884-1894.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898(May-June).

Blockade of Spanish squadron in the Bay.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).

SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (June-July).

Attack and investment by American army.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE-JULY).

SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (July 3).

Destruction of Spanish fleet.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).

SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (July 4-17).

Surrender of the city and Spanish forces.
 See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 4-17).

SANTIAGO DE CUBA: A. D. 1898 (August).

Sickness in the American army.
Withdrawal of troops.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: CUBA).

SARGON OF AKKAD.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN
EXPLORATION.

SAYINGS OF OUR LORD, Discovery of a fragment of the.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: DISCOVERY OF A
FRAGMENT.

SCHLEY, Admiral W. S.:

In operations at Santiago de Cuba.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).

SCHLEY, Admiral W. S.:

Destruction of Spanish squadron.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY 3).

SCHOOLS.
 See EDUCATION.

SCHREINER, W. P.:
Resignation of the Premiership of Cape Colony.

See (in this volume)

SOUTH AFRICA (CAPE COLONY): A. D. 1900 (APRIL-JUNE).

SCHWAN, General:
Military operations in the Philippine Islands.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).

{435}

----------SCIENCE, RECENT: Start--------

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL DISCOVERY.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.

CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:

Acetylene Gas.

Acetylene gas has been known since 1832, when it was

discovered by Edmund Davy; but it remained a mere laboratory
product until 1892, when two experimenters, in America and
France, stumbled accidentally on the production, in an
electric furnace, of calcium carbide, which water decomposes,
readily yielding the gas in question. The American discoverer
was Mr. Thomas Willson, a Canadian electrician, residing at
Spray, North Carolina; his French rival was Professor Henry
 Moisson, of Paris. The priority of Mr. Willson in the
discovery, or in the announcement of it, is most generally
recognized, and he secured patents in the United States and
elsewhere. Electrical developments since 1892 have economized
the manufacture of calcium carbide, by electric heat acting on
a mixture of lime and coke, and it has become an important
commercial product, at Niagara Falls and other seats of
electric power, bringing acetylene gas into extensive use as
an illuminant. There have been dangers and difficulties in the
use, however, not easily overcome.

CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:

Discovery of Argon and Helium.

"After Lord Rayleigh, in 1892, had proved that nitrogen

obtained from chemical combinations was about one-half per
cent lighter than that obtained from the atmosphere, a
determination that was again verified in 1894, Lord Rayleigh
and Professor Ramsay separated from atmospheric nitrogen an
elementary gas of great density which, by reason of its
chemical indifference, they called argon. They proved that
this gas formed about 0.8 or 0.9 per cent of the volume of
nitrogen, from which it could be separated either by
incandescent magnesium or by the continued action of the
electric spark. It was established beyond doubt that Cavendish
produced this gas a hundred years ago by the use of the
electric spark. Argon, either alone or accompanied by helium,
has also been found in natural waters as well as in minerals.
Its discovery in a meteorite of Augusta County, Virginia,
United States of America, may perhaps lead us to ascribe to it
an extra-terrestrial origin.

"The physical properties of argon are very distinct, and its

characteristic spectrum enables us to at once distinguish it
with certainty from any other substance, but from a chemical
point of view this gas is most extraordinarily inactive, and
we have not yet succeeded in making it form combinations as
the other elements do. This peculiarity, and also the
impossibility of finding a place in the periodic system for a
simple body having the molecular weight of argon (39.88), have
given rise to all sorts of hypotheses relative to the nature
of this gas. …

"Another most interesting discovery was that of helium, made

by Professor Ramsay. In 1891 Hillebrand showed that uranium
ore and ores of the same family when dissolved in acids or
fused with alkaline carbonates, or even merely heated in a
vacuum, may give off as much as 3 per cent of nitrogen.
Professor Ramsay obtained this gas from cleveite and by means
of spectroscopic examination demonstrated the presence of
argon; and in the course of his experiments—in March, 1895—he
observed beside the spectrum of argon another bright, yellow
line that did not belong to that spectrum, and which Crookes
recognized as identical with the line D that Lockyer had
already observed in 1868 in the spectrum of the solar
chromosphere, and which he had attributed to an element as yet
unknown upon the earth—helium. The same line had also been
distinguished in the spectra of other fixed stars,
particularly in the spectrum of Orion, so that it may be
admitted that helium exists in large quantities
extra-terrestrially. … On our planet it appears, on the
contrary, to be very rare, and may be ranked among the rarest
of elements. … "Helium is the lightest of all the gases except
hydrogen; Stoney deduces from this fact an explanation of the
existence of these two elements in but very small quantities
in a free state upon the face of the earth, while they are
distributed in enormous masses throughout the universe. The
comparatively small force of the earth's gravitation does not
form a sufficient counterpoise to the velocity of their
molecules, which therefore escape from the terrestrial
atmosphere unless restrained by chemical combination. They
then proceed to reunite around great centres of attraction,
such as the fixed stars, in whose atmospheres these elements
exist in large quantities."
 C. Winkler,
The Discovery of new Elements within the last
twenty-five years
(Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1897,
page 237, translated from Revue Scientifique,
4th series, volume 8).

CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:

Liquefaction of Oxygen, Hydrogen and Air.

"The most remarkable recent work in refrigeration is that of

Professor James Dewar, of the Royal Institution in London. The
feat of liquefying oxygen by a succession of approaches to its
critical temperature has been thus described by him, in an
interview which appeared in 'McClure's Magazine,' November,
1893: 'The process of liquefying oxygen, briefly speaking, is
this: Into the outer chamber of that double compressor I
introduce, through a pipe, liquid nitrous oxide gas, under a
pressure of about 1,400 pounds to the square inch. I then
allow it to evaporate rapidly, and thus obtain a temperature
around the inner chamber of -90° C. Into this cooled inner
chamber I introduce liquid ethylene, which is a gas at
ordinary temperatures, under a pressure of 1,800 pounds to
the square inch. When the inner chamber is full of ethylene,
its rapid evaporation under exhaustion reduces the temperature
to -135° C. Running through this inner chamber is a tube
containing oxygen gas under a pressure of 750 pounds to the
square inch. The critical point of oxygen gas—that is, the
point above which no amount of pressure will reduce it to a
liquid—is—115° C., but this pressure, at the temperature of
-145° C., is amply sufficient to cause it to liquefy rapidly.'

{436}

"In May, 1898, Professor Dewar, by the use of liquid oxygen,

succeeded in liquefying hydrogen, producing a liquid having
 but one-fourteenth the specific gravity of water; this exploit
brought him within 21° of the absolute zero of centigrade. He
afterward reduced the liquid to solid form, attaining a
temperature estimated at four to five degrees lower. Faraday
and other investigators of an earlier day surmised that
hydrogen, when solidified, would prove to be a metal; now that
the feat of solidification has been accomplished, hydrogen
astonishes the physicist by displaying itself as non-metallic.
…

"For some years the plan was to employ a series of chemical

compounds, each with a lower boiling-point than its
predecessor in the process, and all troublesome and hazardous
in manipulation. A better method has been developed by keeping
to simple air from first to last, as in the apparatus of Dr.
Linde, of Dr. Hampson, and of Mr. Charles E. Tripler.

"As the Tripler machine does its work on a bolder scale than
either of the others, let its operation be briefly outlined:
Air is first compressed to 65 pounds pressure to the square
inch; through a second pump this pressure is exalted to 400
pounds, and with a third pump the pressure is carried to 2,500
pounds. After each compression the air flows through jacketed
pipes, where it is cooled by a stream of water. At the third
condensation a valve, the secret of whose construction Mr.
Tripler keeps to himself, permits part of the compressed air
to flow into a pipe surrounding the tube through which the
remainder is flowing. This act of expansion severely chills
the imprisoned air, which at last discharges itself in liquid
form—much as water does from an ordinary city faucet."

G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 6 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.).

CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:

Smokeless Powders.
 "In recent years smokeless powders have largely superseded all
others. These contain usually nitro-cellulose (gun cotton), or
nitro-glycerine, or both, made up into a plastic, coherent,
and homogeneous compound of a gluey nature, and fashioned into
horn-like sticks or rods by being forced under pressure,
through a die plate having small holes, through which the
plastic material is strained into strings like macaroni, or
else is molded into tablets, pellets, or grains of cubical
shape. Prominent among those who have contributed to this art
are the names of Turpin, Abel and Dewar, Nobel, Maxim, Munroe,
Du Pont, Bernadou and others. In the recent years of the
Nineteenth Century great activity has been manifest in this
field of invention. In the United States more than 600
different patents have been granted for explosives, the larger
portion of them being for nitro-compounds which partake in a
greater or less degree of the qualities of gun cotton or
nitro-glycerine."

E. W. Byrn,
Progress of Invention in the 19th Century,
page 419.

CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS:

X Rays.
The Discovery of Professor Rontgen.

"Fresh proofs await us of the supreme rank of both electricity

and photography as resources of art and science as we observe
the transcendent powers evoked by their union. From this union
no issue is more extraordinary, more weighty with meaning and
promise, than the X-ray pictures due to Professor Wilhelm
Konrad Rontgen. In these pictures he has but crowned labours
which began when Sir John Herschel noticed that a peculiar
blue light was diffused from a perfectly colourless solution
of quinine sulphate. Professor (now Sir) George Stokes
explained the phenomenon by showing that this blue light
consists of vibrations originally too rapid to be visible,
which are slowed down within the limits of perceptibility as
they pass through the liquid. …

"One path of approach to the achievement of Professor Röntgen

was opened by Sir John Herschel; another, as important, was
blazed and broadened by Professor (now Sir) William Crookes.
In 1874 and 1875 he was engaged upon the researches which gave
the world the radiometer, the tiny mill whose vanes rotate
with rays of light or heat. The action of this mill depends
upon its being placed in a glass bulb almost vacuous. When
such a bulb incloses rubies, bits of phenakite, or other
suitable objects, and electrical discharges are directed upon
them, they glow with the most brilliant luminescence known to
art. Excited by a cathode ray, that is, a ray from the
negative pole of an electrical machine, a Crookes bulb itself
shines with a vivid golden green ray which reminds the
onlooker of the fluorescence of earlier experiments. … "Year
by year the list of substances excitable to luminosity in a
Crookes bulb has been lengthened, and in 1894 it was the good
fortune of Professor Philipp Lenard to discover a wonderful
power of such a bulb. Emerging from it was a cathode ray which
passed nearly as freely through a thin plate of aluminium as
common sunshine does through a pane of glass. Hertz had, a few
years previously, discovered that metals in very thin sheets
were virtually transparent (or, to use Mr. Hyndman's term,
transradiable) to his electric waves. This property was found
by Professor Lenard to extend to the cathode ray and in a much
higher degree. … The ultra-violet ray of ordinary light has
the singular power of causing the gases which it may traverse
to become conductors of electricity, with the effect of
discharging an electrified metallic plate; this property is
shared by cathode rays. Associated with them are the rays of
still more extraordinary powers, discovered by Professor
Röntgen. In his own words let his achievement be recounted, as
published in 'McClure's Magazine,' April, 1896.
 "'I have been for a long time interested in the problem of the
cathode rays from a vacuum tube as studied by Hertz and
Lenard. I had followed their and other researches with great
interest, and determined, us soon as I had the time, to make
some researches of my own. This time I found at the close of
last October. I had been at work for some days when I
discovered something new.' 'What was the date?' 'The 8th of
November.' 'And what was the discovery?' 'I was working with a
Crookes tube covered by a shield of black cardboard. A piece
of barium platino-cyanide paper lay on the bench there. I had
been passing a current through the tube, and I noticed a
peculiar black line across the paper.' 'What of that?' 'The
effect was one which could only be produced, in ordinary
parlance, by the passage of light. No light could come from
the tube, because the shield which covered it was impervious
to any light known, even that of the electric arc.' 'And what
did you think?' 'I did not think; I investigated. I assumed
that the effect must have come from the tube, since its
character indicated that it could come from nowhere else. I
tested it. In a few minutes there was no doubt about it. Rays
were coming from the tube which had a luminescent effect upon
the paper.
{437}
I tried it successfully at greater and greater distances, even
at two metres. It seemed at first a new kind of invisible
light. It was clearly something new, something unrecorded.'
'Is it light?' 'No.' 'Is it electricity?' 'Not in any known
form.' 'What is it?' 'I don't know.' And the discoverer of the
X rays thus stated as calmly his ignorance of their essence as
has everybody else who has written on the phenomena thus far.

"'Having discovered the existence of a new kind of rays, I of

course began to investigate what they would do.' He took up a
series of cabinet-sized photographs. 'It soon appeared from
tests that the rays had penetrative power to a degree hitherto
unknown. They penetrated paper, wood, and cloth with ease; and
the thickness of the substance made no perceptible difference,
within reasonable limits.' He showed photographs of a box of
laboratory weights of platinum, aluminium, and brass, they and
the brass hinges all having been photographed from a closed
box, without any indication of the box. Also a photograph of a
coil of fine wire, wound on a wooden spool, the wire having
been photographed and the wood omitted.

"'The rays,' he continued, 'passed through all the metals

tested, with a facility varying, roughly speaking, with the
density of the metal. These phenomena I have discussed
carefully in my report to the Würzburg Society, and you will
find all the technical results therein stated.' He showed a
photograph of a small sheet of zinc. This was composed of
smaller plates soldered laterally with solders of different
metallic proportions. The differing lines of shadow caused by
the difference in the solders were visible evidence that a new
means of detecting flaws and chemical variations in metals had
been found. A photograph of a compass showed the needle and
dial taken through the closed brass cover. The markings of the
dial were in red metallic paint, and thus interfered with the
rays, and were reproduced. 'Since the rays had this great
penetrative power, it seemed natural that they should
penetrate flesh, and so it proved in photographing the hand,
as I showed you.'" …

"Provided with a Röntgen bulb, the photographer passes from

the exterior to the interior of an object, almost as if he
were a sorcerer with power to transmute all things to glass.
Equipped with a simple X-ray apparatus, dislocations and
fractures are detected by the surgeon, diseases of bones are
studied, and shot, needles, and bits of glass or corroding
wire within the muscles of a patient are located with
exactitude. Thanks to the work of Mr. Mackenzie Davidson, the
like detection of renal calculi can be looked forward to with
a fair degree of certainty. The same means of exploration
offers equal aid to medicine: it demonstrates the
calcification of arteries, and aneurysms of the heart or of
the first part of the aorta; with improved methods it may be
possible to study fatty degenerations of the arteries and
larger blood-vessels. Dr. C. M. Mouillin, addressing the
Röntgen Society of London as its president, states that the
fluorescent screen has now reached such a degree of perfection
that the minutest movement of the heart and lungs, and the
least change in the action of the diaphragm, can be watched
and studied at leisure in the living subject. He considers it
probable that the examination of a patient's chest with this
screen may become as much a matter of common routine as with
the stethoscope to-day. …

"Manifestly, the unseen universe which enfolds us is steadily

being brought to the light of day. The investigations of Hertz
established that the light-waves which affect the eye are but
one octave in a gamut which sweeps indefinitely far both above
and below them. In his hands, as in those of Joseph Henry long
before, electric waves found their way through the walls and
floors of a house; in the Marconi telegraph these waves pass
through the earth or a fog, a mist or a rain-storm, with
little or no hindrance. What does all this mean? Nothing less
than that, given its accordant ray, any substance whatever is
permeable, and that, therefore, to communicate between any two
places in the universe is simply a question of providing the
right means."

G. Iles,
Flame, Electricity and the Camera,
chapter 24 (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.).

In an article made public in the "New York Tribune" of January

6, 1901, Professor John Trowbridge, of Harvard University,
expressed his anticipations from the further improvement of
the use of the X rays, as follows: "At present all of the
great hospitals of the world examine injuries of the
extremities of the human body by means of these rays. In some
cases the thicker portions of the body can be studied by their
 means. There is, however, much to be desired in the method,
for in general the rays exhibit only the shadows of the bones
of the extremities, or reveal at most the regions of greatest
density in the body. If the muscles and tendons or the veins
and arteries could be studied by means of these rays, an
immense aid to surgery would result. Some experiments I have
conducted with currents of great strength, lead me to believe
that much can be done in this direction, for I have in certain
cases obtained unmistakable traces of muscles and tendons, and
the direction in which to advance is becoming clearer. The use
of the X rays is not confined to the examination of the body.
Together with the ultra violet rays, the X rays are used to
cure cutaneous disorders. We are realizing that electricity is
an important factor in health and disease. The investigations
which have resulted from the discovery of these rays have
opened wide vistas in the molecular world."

ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Power.
Lighting.
Electro-chemical and Electro-metallurgical works.
The development at Niagara Falls.

"There were perhaps not more than twenty trolley cars in

actual service in 1887, and these were of doubtful success.
There were no regularly constituted electric railways worthy
of the name. The telephone and electric-lighting wires were
largely overhead, and frequently the construction was of the
most imperfect and temporary character. … Within the past
eight or ten years much has been done in the perfection of
thoroughly practical forms of meters and other instruments for
the measurement of electric forces and quantities. While such
work resembles in its delicacy that demanded by watch
mechanism, on the other hand the large station dynamos are
examples of the heaviest machine construction. … A few years
ago a dynamo was large if it demanded 100 or 200 horsepower to
drive it, while now such machines are diminutive when compared
 with those of 2,000 horsepower commonly constructed.
{438}
Dynamos are in use at Niagara of 5,000 horsepower capacity. A
single one of these would supply more than 50,000 incandescent
lights such as are ordinarily used, or would give motion to
500 trolley cars. The period since 1887 has been marked by
great extension in electric lighting by both arc and
incandescent lamps. … One of the chief factors in this great
extension has been the application of alternating electric
currents, or currents of wave-like nature, reversing their
direction many times in each second. The direct or continuous
current had previously occupied the field alone. But the
alternating current possessed the advantage of readily
permitting the sending out over a long distance of a high
pressure current with but little loss and by means of
comparatively small and inexpensive lines. This current,
relatively dangerous, could then be exchanged for a safe
low-pressure current on the house mains for working the
lights. The device which makes the exchange is called a
transformer. It is in reality a modified induction coil—a
simple structure of copper wire, sheet-iron, and insulating
materials, with no moving parts to need attention or to get
out of order. The properties and use of the transformer in an
alternating-current system were comparatively unknown before
1887, but since that time it has played a part in electric
development the importance of which cannot easily [not?] be
overestimated. It has been, furthermore, brought to a high
degree of perfection by the persistent and painstaking effort
of numerous workers. In transforming a current of high
pressure to one of lower pressure, or the reverse, only a very
slight loss of power or energy is suffered. On a large scale,
this loss is barely 3 per cent of the energy of the
transformed current. The larger sizes of transformers now in
use have capacities equivalent to considerably over 1,000
horsepower. Some of these structures are employed at Niagara
and others at Buffalo. As in the case of the apparatus just
mentioned, the effort spent in the perfection of the huge
dynamo-electric generators used in lighting and power stations
has resulted in machines so perfect as to leave but little
chance of further increase of effectiveness. They waste only a
small percentage in converting mechanical power into
electrical energy, and run for years with but little attention
or need of repairs. Along with all this improvement has gone a
like betterment in the thousand and one details and minor
devices which go to make up an electric system. …

"Perhaps … no better example of the varied application of

electric energy exists than at Niagara. Certainly no grander
exemplification of the way in which electric forces may be
called into play, to replace other and unlike agencies, can be
cited. Here at Niagara we may forcibly realize the importance
of cheap and unfailing power developed from water in its fall.
We find the power of huge water wheels delivered to the
massive dynamos for giving out electric energy. This energy is
variously employed. The electric lighting of the city of
Niagara and surroundings and the electric railways naturally
depend upon the water power. Besides these, which may be
termed the ordinary applications of electricity, there are
clustered at Niagara a number of unique industrial
establishments, the importance of which will undoubtedly
increase rapidly. In the carborundum factory we find huge
furnaces heated by the passage of electric current, and
attaining temperatures far beyond those of the ordinary
combustion of fuel. These electric furnaces produce
carborundum, a new abrasive nearly as hard as the diamond,
which is a combination of carbon and silicon, unknown before
the electric furnace gave it birth. Sand and coke are the raw
substances for its production, and these are acted upon by the
excessively high heat necessary to form the new product,
already in extensive use for grinding hard materials. The
metal aluminum, which not many years ago cost $2 an ounce, is
now produced on a large scale at Niagara, and sold at a price
which makes it, bulk for bulk, cheaper than brass. Here,
again, electricity is the agent; but in this case its power of
electrolyzing or breaking up strong chemical unions is
employed. … Works for the production of metallic sodium and
other metals similarly depend upon the decompositions effected
by the electric current. Solutions of ordinary salt or brine
are electrolyzed on a large scale in extensive works
established for the purpose. … The very high temperature which
exists in an electric arc, or between the carbons of an arc lamp,
has in recent years found application in the manufacture of
another important compound, which was formerly but slightly
known as a chemical difficult to prepare. Carbide of calcium
is the compound referred to, and large works for its
production exist at Niagara. Here again, as in the carborundum
works, raw materials of the simplest and cheapest kind are
acted upon in what may be termed an electric-arc furnace.
Coke, or carbon, and lime are mixed and charged into a furnace
in which an enormous electric arc is kept going. … The
importance of carbide of calcium rests in the fact that, by
contact with water, it produces acetylene gas. The
illuminating power of this gas, when burned, is its remarkable
property.

"It will be seen that the metallurgical and chemical

developments at Niagara are the direct outgrowth of electrical
utilization of water power. With many water powers, however,
the outlet for the application of the electrical energy exists
many miles away from the place at which the water power is
found. Even at Niagara there is an example of the beginning of
long-distance transmission, by a high-pressure line extending to
Buffalo and delivering electric energy to an electric station
there. In this case 'step-up' transformers, as they are
called, are employed at the Niagara power plant to step up or
raise the electrical pressure or potential from that given by
the dynamos to that required for the transmission to Buffalo.
This transformation is from about 2,500 up to 10,000 volts. At
the Buffalo end the reverse process is carried on by 'step-down'
transformers, and the energy is delivered to the trolley lines
at about 500 volts. … The whole Niagara plant has grown into
 existence within the past five years, and as a consequence of
the technical advances within the period of the past ten
years. There are, however, in active operation, besides the
Niagara power plant, several other water-power transmissions,
some of them far exceeding in distance that between Niagara
and Buffalo, and some in which the amount of power conveyed,
as well as the pressure of the current used upon the line, is
much greater than is yet to be found at Niagara. … No limit
can as yet be definitely set as to the distance which can be
covered in an electrical transmission. … It may be said that
at present the range of distances is between 30 and 100 miles.
…

{439}

"Electricity seems destined at no distant day to play an

important part in revolutionizing passenger traffic between
large centers of population. The facility with which electric
service may be superposed on ordinary steam roads will greatly
further this development. The work with the third-rail system,
undertaken by one of our prominent railway organizations, has
abundantly demonstrated the practicability of such
superposition. The future will witness the growing
substitution of either single motor cars or two or three
coupled cars for long, heavy trains drawn by locomotives, and
a more frequent service will result. There is an eventual
possibility of higher average speeds, since stops will not
consume much time, and the time required to recover the speed
after a stop will be much less than at present. … The heating
power of the electric current is now utilized in a variety of
ways. Electric welding machinery has been put into service
either for accomplishing results which were not possible to be
obtained before its development, or to improve the work and
lessen the cost."

Elihu Thomson,
Electrical Advance in Ten Years
 (Forum, January, 1898).

ELECTRICAL SCIENCE:
Development of Power at Niagara Falls.

The following description of the engineering work by which

Niagara was harnessed to turbines and dynamos, for an enormous
development of electrical power, is taken from a paper read by
Mr. Thomas Commerford Martin, of New York, at a meeting of the
Royal Institution of Great Britain, June 19, 1896, and printed
in the Proceedings of the Institution, Volume 15; reprinted in
the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896, page
223:

"Niagara is the point at which are discharged, through two

narrowing precipitous channels only 3,800 feet wide and 160
feet high, the contents of 6,000 cubic miles of water, with a
reservoir area of 90,000 square miles, draining 300,000 square
miles of territory. The ordinary overspill of this Atlantic
set on edge has been determined to be equal to about 75,000
cubic feet per second, and the quantity passing is estimated
as high as 100,000,000 tons of water per hour. The drifting of
a ship over the Horse Shoe Fall has proved it to have a
thickness at the center of the crescent of over 16 feet.
Between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario there is a total difference
of level of 300 feet, and the amount of power represented by
the water at the falls has been estimated on different bases
from 6,750,000 horsepower up to not less than 16,800,000
horsepower, the latter being a rough calculation of Sir
William Siemens, who, in 1877, was the first to suggest the
use of electricity as the modern and feasible agent of
converting into useful power some of this majestic but
squandered energy. …

"It was Mr. Thomas Evershed, an American civil engineer, who

unfolded the plan of diverting part of the stream at a
considerable distance above the falls, so that no natural
beauty would be interfered with, while an enormous amount of
power would be obtained with a very slight reduction in the
volume of the stream at the crest of the falls. Essentially
scientific and correct as the plan now shows itself to be, it
found prompt criticism and condemnation, but not less quickly
did it rally the able and influential support of Messrs. W. B.
Rankine, Francis Lynde Stetson, Edward A. Wickes, and Edward
D. Adams, who organized the corporate interests that, with an
expenditure of £1,000,000 in five years, have carried out the
present work. So many engineering problems arose early in the
enterprise that after the survey of the property in 1890 an
International Niagara Commission was established in London,
with power to investigate the best existing methods of power
development and transmission, and to select from among them,
as well as to award prizes of an aggregate of £4,400. This
body included men like Lord Kelvin, Mascart, Coleman Sellers,
Turrettini, and Dr. Unwin, and its work was of the utmost
value. Besides this the Niagara Company and the allied
Cataract Construction Company enjoyed the direct aid of other
experts, such as Prof. George Forbes, in a consultative
capacity; while it was a necessary consequence that the
manufacturers of the apparatus to be used threw upon their
work the highest inventive and constructive talent at their
command.

"The time-honored plan in water-power utilization has been to

string factories along a canal of considerable length, with
but a short tail race. At Niagara the plan now brought under
notice is that of a short canal with a very long tail race.
The use of electricity for distributing the power allows the
factories to be placed away from the canal, and in any
location that may appear specially desirable or advantageous.
The perfected and concentrated Evershed scheme comprises a
short surface canal 250 feet wide at its mouth, 1¼ miles above
the fans, far beyond the outlying Three Sisters Islands, with
an intake inclined obliquely to the Niagara River. This canal
extends inwardly 1,700 feet, and has an average depth of some