The Conic Sections Rebellion, also known as the Conic Section Rebellion, refers primarily to an incident which occurred at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in 1830, as a result of changes in the methods of
mathematics education
In contemporary education, mathematics education, known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics – is the practice of teaching, learning and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge.
Although re ...
. When a policy change dictated that students were required to draw reference diagrams for exams rather than be allowed to refer to diagrams in their textbooks, a number of students staged a rebellion in which they refused to take the exams at all. A precursor incident occurred in 1825; historian Clarence Deming described the 1830 incident as being "much more serious", and stated that the two incidents should be "sharply demarcated".''Yale Yesterdays'' (via
archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
), by Clarence Deming, published 1915 by
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
1825 incident
In 1825, students of the Yale sophomore class claimed that "by explicit contract with (their) mathematical tutor, (they were) exempt from the corollaries of the text-book (on
conic section
In mathematics, a conic section, quadratic curve or conic is a curve obtained as the intersection of the surface of a cone with a plane. The three types of conic section are the hyperbola, the parabola, and the ellipse; the circle is a spe ...
s)", and refused to recite these corollaries. Thirty-eight students out of a class of eighty-seven, including
Horace Bushnell
Horace Bushnell (April 14, 1802February 17, 1876) was an American Congregational minister and theologian.
Life
Bushnell was born in the village of Bantam, township of Litchfield, Connecticut. He attended Yale College where he roomed with fu ...
,
William H. Welch
William Henry Welch (April 8, 1850 – April 30, 1934) was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical-school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.Henry Hogeboom, and William Adams, were suspended; faculty contacted the students' parents, and the students were pressured into signing a statement of concession:
1830 incident
Prior to the introduction of blackboards, Yale students had been allowed to consult diagrams in their textbooks when solving
geometry
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ...
problems pertaining to conic sections – even on exams. When the students were no longer allowed to consult the text, but were instead required to draw their own diagrams on the blackboard, they refused to take the final exam. As a result, forty-three of the ninety-six students – among them, Alfred Stillé, and Andrew Calhoun, the son of John C. Calhoun – were summarily expelled, and Yale authorities warned neighboring universities against admitting them.Stories in stone: travels through urban geology 2009, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 179