[HPFGU-OTChatter] Digest Number 269

[Simon]

David: <<<I love maths, and I'm good at it (Oxford 1st).  I've met people who
are good but happy to leave it behind.>>

Well I guess I will not need to be giving any more maths advice out. I have
done a fair amount, but have just had enough of being a student and the exams
that go with it.


David: <<<I think of maths as a plural word, though I'm a bit hazy as to what
it's the plural of (apart from math, that is).  A bit like physics, I
suppose.>>>

I believe that maths is short for 'the mathematics', which is usually
shortened to mathematics. Fully it is 'the mathematics of geometry and ...'
(some other stuff that has escaped my memory) and I would guess that this
title dates from ancient Greece. So really mathematics only actually covers a
small area of what we now use the term to describe.

Why the two different shortening of mathematics have developed I do not know,
but if we wish to preserve the historical accuracy of the plural then it
should be maths.



Simon
--
"... smoking causes early morality..." - BBC news coverage of a recent report
into the effects of smoking.
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