Hi Shawn;

Back when I was in college (late 60's) educators sprung the "new math" on kids starting with elementary school. It consisted of concepts like "Sets, Unions, and Classes" and featured operators like the "U" (union). I don't really know where they thought they were going to/coming from, but I suspect it was quickly phased out. I haven't heard the terms used (by students) for years. It was a replacement for arithmetic as I understood it.

Not to take advantage of a soapbox, but I think math is poorly taught to this day. In engineering classes differential equations, LaPlace transforms and the like were introduced as solutions to problems, and I could easily see the why and the wherefore . . . In my math classes, the "pure math" stood without a foundation in reality, and was tough to reconcile wasting brain cell space on. Simple Example:

Teach a kid trig, memorizing identities, looking up answers in tables, memorizing seemingly bizzarre terms like "argcinch" (sp? hyperbolic arc cosine is what I was after) and then come back to him in 10 years and ask him to explain what it all means. Most past trig students wouldn't make the cut. Ask him to calculate a plane heading with a crosswind component and that same student might see the rhyme & reason to that particular branch of math, and might even remember how to use it.

Speaking of crosswind, I'm getting kinda windy myself.

Best Regards, Spidey