Amahoney
Joined 23 Aprilis 2010
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Minuend & subtrahend |
→Math question re English minuend & subtrahend: old-fashioned but not completely obsolete |
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==Math question re English ''minuend'' & ''subtrahend''==
(These must be from ''minuendum'' & ''subtrahendum.'') In a conversation recently, I encountered the statement that "no mathematician uses [these English words] in real life. We usually call the things that are added and subtracted 'terms.'" Is that true? Were ''minuend'' & ''subtrahend'' ever in common use? I ask because I remember distinctly that our fourth-grade teacher used these words! [[Usor:IacobusAmor|IacobusAmor]] ([[Disputatio Usoris:IacobusAmor|disputatio]]) 13:01, 18 Maii 2021 (UTC)
:I know they used to be used -- also "divisor" and "dividend," "multiplier" and "multiplicand." "Addend" is still common. My subjective impression is that "minuend" and "subtrahend" would only come up in discussions of elementary math: I don't remember hearing them in number theory classes. So I don't know whether my friends in the math department ever have occasion to use them -- how often do they talk about subtraction? But "no mathematician says 'minuend'" strikes me as similar to "no mathematician says 'sauce béchamel'" or "no mathematician says 'harmonic minor scale'": true enough, but relatively vacuous. [[Usor:Amahoney|A. Mahoney]] ([[Disputatio Usoris:Amahoney|disputatio]]) 13:24, 18 Maii 2021 (UTC)
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