Difference between revisions of "Word Problems"

Solving practical problems provides the only reason the vast majority of the population needs to learn mathematics at all, and adds variety and interest to learning the rote methods of calculation.
Problems serve to exercise our minds (both young and old) in the techniques of mathematical thinking and problem solving.
They are the reason we first do mathematics.
It is a necessary consequence of this situation that the making and solving of mathematical problems constitutes the longest continuing tradition in the history of mathematics.

It is the first level of mathematics that every person learns, providing the foundation for all the superstructures that are built upon it, and it is the first part of mathematics that passed from one culture to another when scientific ideas are shared; it is the surest sign of continuity from author to author and culture to culture.
If we want to trace the paths by which mathematical ideas are passed from one culture to another or, in their absence, fix the origins of new mathematics, then these are some of the most important sources we have.(pp.381-2)

Only a comparison based on these essential features will allow us to identify true similarities and differences among problems and so trace their common lineage. (p. 386)