Nicolas Pike

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Nicolas Pike

1743-1819

American mathematician who published the first American textbook on mathematics. Pike's book, An American Arithmetic (1788), was just the third book in the United States to receive an American copyright. It was used in many schools as a preparation for college algebra, and was even adopted for use at both Harvard and Yale. The book was, for the day, remarkably thorough in its scope of coverage, ranging from basic arithmetic through conic sections.

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Nicolas Pike

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