The Whetstone of Witte is the shortened title of Robert Recorde's mathematics book published in 1557. The full title being, The Whetstone of Witte, whiche is the seconde parte of Arithmeteke: containing the extraction of rootes; the cossike practise, with the rule of equation; and the workes of Surde Nombers, the book covers topics including whole numbers, the extraction of roots and irrational numbers.
The work is notable for containing the first recorded use of the equals sign and also the first book in English to use the plus and minus signs. However, exponentiation was represented by a cumbersome form of mathematical notation in which indices and surds were represented by their prime factors (see Prime factor exponent notation).