Re: st: a little off-topic, but a good trivia question

[Jon.Alsip@cancer.org]

For an interesting discussion, but perhaps unsatisfactory for your
daughter's purposes,  see

 http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52477.html

There may be as many answers as there are historians of mathematics.  Of
course, the math teacher has the grade book, so his/her answer is the
correct one.

Jon Alsip


                                                                                                                   
                      "Christopher W. Ryan"                                                                        
                      <cryan@binghamton.edu>           To:       <statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu>                  
                      Sent by:                         cc:                                                         
                      owner-statalist@hsphsun2.        Subject:  st: a little off-topic, but a good trivia         
                      harvard.edu                       question                                                   
                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                   
                      05/08/2003 02:22 PM                                                                          
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My teenage daughter's math teacher has posed a riddle to her class:  why is
the
letter "m" traditionally used (at least here in the US, I don't know about
elsehwere) to indicate the slope of a line on a graph?  Is there some
underlyinig meaning, or a historical convention?
Thanks for any insights

--Chris Ryan



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