"As to the need of improvement there can be no question whilst the reign of Euclid continues. My own idea of a useful course is to begin with arithmetic, and then not Euclid but algebra. Next, not Euclid, but practical geometry, solid as well as plane; not demonstration, but to make acquaintance. Then not Euclid, but elementary vectors, conjoined with algebra, and applied to geometry. Addition first; then the scalar product. Elementary calculus should go on simultaneously, and come into the vector algebraic geometry after a bit. Euclid might be an extra course for learned men, like Homer. But Euclid for children is barbarous."
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Oliver Heaviside, Electro-Magnetic Theory, (London, 1893), Vol. 1, p. 148. Reported in Moritz (1914)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Euclid%E2%80%99s_Elements
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Euclid’s Elements
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