Euclid's Elements with Exercises Instructor's Copy

Book excerpt: The instructor's edition of Euclid's Elements With Exercises is intended as a guide for anyone teaching Euclid for the first time. Although it could be used by anyone, it was assembled and written with small schools or homeschooling groups in mind. In addition to containing the first six books in exactly the format of the student edition (also available on Amazon), the instructor's edition provides a concise overview of the course, including suggestions for conducting the class, a discussion of the organization of the material, brief comments on supplemental and memory work, and other details about which a new instructor might have questions. It also has notes for the teacher on each of the six books of the Elements, notes on selected exercises, and an appendix explaining the basics of formal reasoning, including an explanation of the converse and contrapositive of a statement and the concept of an indirect proof, which occurs early in Book I. The primary difference between this work and Euclid's Elements as it is usually presented (aside from the fact that there are some exercises), is that, while all of Books I - VI are included in the book, some propositions are omitted in the main body of the text (all omitted propositions are in Appendix A). This was done in order to be able to finish in two semesters all the plane geometry that would normally be covered in a modern geometry class. It should be noted, of course, that the flow of logic of the propositions is never interrupted. This book was not designed for the purist. Although it is pure Euclid and contains all of the first six books, it may offend the sensibilities of some who love Euclid (as the assembler/author does) to fail to place Book II in the expected flow of the main body of the text. For anyone not under a time constraint, or anyone moving quickly through the text, the author strongly recommends the inclusion of Book II in the course flow.