Will's Commercial Arithmetic, Presenting the Best Usage in Modern Business Practice

Excerpt from Will's Commercial Arithmetic, Presenting the Best Usage in Modern Business Practice

It has been found extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the average student of arithmetic to remember its many topical rules and explanations, and to exercise due discrimination in giving to each its local application. "Will's Commercial Arithmetic" has therefore ignored this unsatisfactory method of treatment, and has substituted the few cardinal principles which underlie all arithmetical processes, and which can be used in the solution and explanation of all problems. The learner is thus liberated from slavish adherence to mechanical rules and hackneyed explanations which are soon forgotten, and is properly cultured in the exercise of his reasoning faculties in the solution of problems, the effect of which is permanent.

The only conceivable modifications of any given number in a problem are effected either by increasing it or by decreasing it. The law of increase or decrease is uniform in its application. Addition and multiplication are the only known numerical processes for increasing a number, the former being employed when the increase is by one or more given unequal components, and the latter when by equal components. Conversely, subtraction and division are the only known means for diminishing a number, the former being employed when the decrease is by one or more given unequal components, and the latter when by equal components. Each of the four preceding processes is thus seen to be invariably limited to its own prerequisite conditions; and the proper process to select will depend upon the particular prerequisite conditions which are given. The intelligent solution of a problem can therefore involve nothing further than the identification of its numerical terms, a knowledge of the specific process to which these identified terms invariably belong, and the mechanical performance of that process.

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