Leon P Smith on Nostr: npub1zdp33…2vqv8 I wonder how "important" teaching factoring really is. I mean, ...

npub1zdp33shl69xr0uq3x8n5gsjykq9upycwh6nqm02c3f6x0frrn0dq42vqv8 (npub1zdp…vqv8) I wonder how "important" teaching factoring really is. I mean, it's our traditional way of developing algebraic skills, and I'm certainly not opposed to that, but... I've always felt that factoring is relatively "slow" to connect to higher mathematics relative to a number of simpler, more approachable ideas.

Or stated another way, it feels like factoring doesn't build on itself in the mathematical curriculum in quite the same way as say, Pascal's Triangle.

But as an approach to getting to the quadratic formula, yeah I agree.