WebMath: Re: WebMath R2L

[Jonathan Borwein]

 Dear Dan, thanks for this very informative response!
 Jon
 
> Prof. Dan Butnariu
> > 
> > Dear Jon,
> > As far as I know, writing mathematics from right to left is unusual in
> > Hebrew schools. The fact is, that when teaching maths courses in Hebrew,
> > it is more confortable to write short formulae like "x \in A" or "A=3" in
> > the form "A in x " or "3=A" and some teachers (me included) are doing
> > that. Most of the first year students are a bit surprized when we are
> > doing so but they get used to it and take it as a joke. Thinking of my
> > daughter whose natural language is Hebrew and who learned maths in Hebrew
> > and thinking of myself who learned Hebrew at age 33, and teach in Hebrew
> > since 1985, I do not see any reason for writing maths from right to
> > left. I even think that, given the long and universal tradition of
> > writing math from
> > left to right, teaching Hebrew speaking children to write it the other
> > way will create an artificial problem for them because at University level
> > they will have to use foreign language books (mostly in English and
> > French) in which math comes naturally from LtR. If somebody (flying with
> > the wings of nationalistic fervor or for whatever reasons) thinks to
> > convert math to RtL writing please tell him to find another, more
> > productive, job. dan
> > 
> > Professor Dan Butnariu
> > Department of Mathematics
> > University of Haifa
> > 31905 Haifa, Israel
> > Fax: 972-4-8240024
> > Phone: 972-4-8240167
> > 
> > On Wed, 5 Jul 2000, Jonathan Borwein wrote:
> > 
> > > Dear Robert:
> > > I've forwarded your question to friends at the Technion and University
> > > of Haifa -- which has a sizable Arab student population.
> > > Cheers, Jon
> > >  
> > > Robert Miner
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Hello all,
> > > > 
> > > > The internationalization folks at W3C have asked the Math group to
> > > > investigate the use of right to left math notation in RtL languages
> > > > such as Arabic.  We have written to our friends and colleages, but we
> > > > haven't been very successful in getting useful answers -- various
> > > > people have offered second hand opinions that at the lower levels,
> > > > math is in fact sometimes written RtL, but we have only been able to
> > > > get a copy of a single document showing this, and it was a little
> > > > suspect, since it was higher-level and mixed RtL and LtR layout.
> > > > 
> > > > Does anyone on this list have experience with RtL math equations?
> > > > Does anyone know some lower-grade math teachers in Arabic or Hebrew
> > > > speaking schools whom we could ask about what they do?  
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > 
> > > > --Robert
> > > > 
> > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > Robert Miner                          http://www.webeq.com
> > > > Geometry Technologies, Inc.           email: rminer at geomtech.com
> > > > W3C Math Working Group                phone: 651-223-2884
> > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > -----------------------------------------------------------------
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> > > 
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > CECM       o       Jonathan Borwein, Shrum Professor of Science, FRSC
> > >            _       Director              Centre for
> > >            =       Experimental and Constructive Mathematics
> > >         o     o    President, Canadian Mathematical Society
> > > Math Dept, Simon Fraser Univ, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6 (jborwein at cecm.sfu.ca)
> > > PHONE: (604) 291-3070/5617 FAX: 5614/4947  URL: www.cecm.sfu.ca/~jborwein/
> > > 
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
> CECM       o       Jonathan Borwein, Shrum Professor of Science, FRSC
>            _       Director              Centre for
>            =       Experimental and Constructive Mathematics
>         o     o    President, Canadian Mathematical Society
> Math Dept, Simon Fraser Univ, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6 (jborwein at cecm.sfu.ca)
> PHONE: (604) 291-3070/5617 FAX: 5614/4947  URL: www.cecm.sfu.ca/~jborwein/
> 


-- 
CECM       o       Jonathan Borwein, Shrum Professor of Science, FRSC
           _       Director              Centre for
           =       Experimental and Constructive Mathematics
        o     o    President, Canadian Mathematical Society
Math Dept, Simon Fraser Univ, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6 (jborwein at cecm.sfu.ca)
PHONE: (604) 291-3070/5617 FAX: 5614/4947  URL: www.cecm.sfu.ca/~jborwein/
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