Did Surds exist in early-1980s maths?

[wineoclockthanks]

I've been trying to help DS with his maths homework and the questions were all about Surds. I took Maths O'level in 1981 and I swear I've never heard of them before.

Have I just forgotten it or is it a new name/phenomenon?

I did them for GCSE in the early 90s.

I did O and A level Maths in the early 1980s - definitely weren't on the syllabus then. I'd never heard of them until DS started studying them a couple of years ago.

I'm from Ireland and they were on the Junior Cert syllabus when I sat it in 1999. Amazed at the hatred, I remember it as a reasonably straight forward topic compared to others!

I don't remember them from GCSE maths 1997. I presume I must have done the higher tier paper as I got an A.

O levels and A levels set by different boards were often quite different.

They were in my Scottish O grade in 1982. They were too easy to be in Higher Maths. We did them for a couple of lessons and then we're expected to be fully conversant.

I've never heard of surds. I took my maths GCSE in 2004.

Surds, irrational numbers and differential calculus were on the O level syllabus in the 80s.

I am ancient and took O and A levels in the 1970s. I definitely did surds but I cannot remember which level it was, and I certainly can't remember WTF they are!

Did GCSE in 2004 (higher) and I have never heard of them. I even googled it in case I'd forgotten and nope.

Irrational numbers yes though I've forgotten what that means.

From memory.

An irrational number is one that cannot be expressed in the form a/bwhere a and b are integers. π, e and √2 spring to mind.

A surd is a number that cannot be reduced to an integer by taking the square root. So 1,2 and 3 are all surds. 4 is not (because √4 = 2).

If it's of any consolation, I don't recall really needing that knowledge since exams. My graduate Maths was mainly engineering - LaPlace, Fourier and Eigenvectors ....

And further to this (when ‘helping’) my Yr9 daughter ... why? What practical use is this?

Does it need a practical use? Is there a practical use for most of us in knowing the causes of WW1, or how a river transports eroded material, or how Shakespeare portrays the character of Hamlet?

Surds are a small part of the sum of human knowledge that feed into major areas of study, such as solving equations, and ultimately Galois theory, one of the pinnacles of mathematical discovery.

Very little facts learned at school had practical applications . It's more about learning to learn (as my DM used to say).

Anyway, what are "facts" really, when it comes to it. Feelings are where it's at these days. Why learn facts when you can just identify as someone clever ?

It is just hard when ‘helping’ a child with maths (or any subject for that matter) to have the constant whine of ‘why - I’m never going to need it’ ....

It is always interesting to have some knowledge of geography or history, science, economics ....

I had never heard of them until last year when dd did her GCSE's. I did Higher Level GCSE maths in 1990.

I am in my 40s and did A level equivalent at school .. nope ....

God I had to dust off my brain cells but yes, I did surds in Honours Maths for my Inter Cert in 1990! (Irish equivalent to GCSE).