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Show GWING OUR Vv ORLD THE Once Discipline Not Wanted j -The findings of a survey, rather widely published about a month) ago, showed that among present day students, mathematics is the! "most hated" of all subjects. And for what it is worth, this same survey went on to show that teachers, tea-chers, by and large, share this same pet hate with their students. Now it would be easy to con- j elude, and there is a degree of validity val-idity to the contention, that the widespread students' aversion to ' mathematics would be traceable' to the teachers' dislike of it. It is . nearly axiomatic, if the use of a I mathematical term is permissable here, that if a teacher is to put across to the student an interest in and a liking for a subject, the teacher himself must have a firm grasp of it, and must find it stimulating stim-ulating to his own intellect. i However, there is reason to think the answer is not as easy as that. The dislike for mathematics mathe-matics expressed by both students and teachers probably goes deeper. More likely, it has its root in certain cer-tain disturbing trends in the thought and manners of our day. I Consider, for illustration, what the said survey discovered to be the best liked of subjects: social science. Then set the two subjects up side by side, and let us see what we can make of them. i Mathematics is the most exact of all the sciences. For that reason, it requires mental discipline of the f nest kind. There is no room in it for slip-shod thinking; no room for wishful thinking. The student who can't solve his problems without with-out contending that two plus two equal five, or that the whole is gTeater than the sum of its part must admit a .law in his logic and accept a low mark, from which there can be no appeal outside a more rational approach to Ms problems. Social science, on the other hand, is so inexact that it hardly deserves de-serves to be called a science at all. H thrives on the rosy illusion that the government can do everything every-thing for everybody. Its high priests are notorious for their failure fail-ure to recognize the mathematical facts of life. If it suits their purpose pur-pose to contend that two a-' two make five, or would if . e old guard of conservatives weald just shut up and stop reminding them that this is impossible, then that is what they contend, and they swing large numbers of voters over ' to their way of thinking, and re- ' rard themselves as forward-looking and progressive. They are firm in the belief that somehow we can gain by having the federal government govern-ment take a lot of our earnings away from us through taxation' and then hand part of it back. The whole, necessarily, must be greater than the sum of its parts or else there is something wrong with the philosophy of the high priests of social science as it is practiced these day. An unthinkable unthink-able heresy, of course. Perhaps the most disturbing thought in connection with all this is that mathematics, as the highest high-est of sciences, being at once the most abstract as well as the most exact, necessarily holds its strongest strong-est appeal for the more brilliant minds; and for that reason the survey produced evidence, indirect though rather obvious, that the majority of both teachers and students stu-dents are of mediocre mind. We do live in the age of the common man, the age in which mediocrity is not infrequently exalted for no other reason than that it is mediocre, therefore, conformist, and therefore "common." 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To the 'brilliant, searching, intellectually in-tellectually honest mind, the mind of the truth seeker who can reject re-ject the easy answers of wishful thinking and rosy illusion, mathematics math-ematics is a challenge and a source of great mental satisfaction. Euclid's principles of geometry are intriguing not only because they appear to 'be irrefutable, but also because they could be so proved, conceivably, and if proved in error, er-ror, the whole logical structure built upon them necessarily also proved wrong. Einstein questioned the axiomatic, or self-evident state ment that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, po-ints, and he may have disproved it insofar as it would apply to his theories of relativity and time-space. time-space. But the beauty of the whole science is that every dedicated student of it is honestly in the search for truth. Pure, abstract, truth. He is as eager to renounce truth disproved as he is to accept truth apparently proved. The World B'ok Encyclopedia carries, in the concluding paragraphs para-graphs of its section on Geometry, which is one of the 'medium high" divisions of the mathematical science, sci-ence, this statement: "But geometry has other values, as important if not so practical. Its logical plan, the way it pro ceeds from step to step without allowing for any gap in the reasoning, rea-soning, develops the reasoning powers in a way' impossible to any subject which admits of more hit-or-miss methods. Nor are all all the theorems and problems of geometry worked out and set down in the text books for the student to study. Any good book contains a large number of original ori-ginal propositions which the student stu-dent must work out for himself, and nothing proves more clearly his mastery not only of geometric principles but of the workings of his own mind, than the ability to work out a theorem clearly and with the fewest possible statements state-ments make his demonstration clear to others. There is a joy which must be felt to be appreciated appreciat-ed ir detecting a fallacy or gap in tracing out the definition, axiom or proposition which makes it plain that some elusive point is actually provable. This is less if true one dislikes mathematics. "To sum up, no study can quite take the place of geometry as a cure for slovenly habits of thinking, think-ing, and until some such substitute sub-stitute can be found, it seems likely like-ly to hold its place, even for those who have no practical use for it." The author of that, apparently, felt sure that no substitute was likely to be found very soon. And what he said is applicable to all branches of mathematics; the lower low-er to a lesser degree, perhaps, although al-though the simplest problem in addition ad-dition is as exacting in its way as the more advanced geometrical theorem, and the higher, wherein the students follows the intricacies intric-acies of differential calculus, to a more exacting degree. So the evidence seems pretty conclusive that the average student stu-dent of today, as well as the aver age teacher, wants not the mental discipline of mathematics! is not going to be stopped by the fact that you can't trisect an angle, nor square the circle, nor somehow add up two plus two to make five, as long as some politician is will-to will-to promise that the government will do it for him. What he wants is to be living in a world of rosy illusion, free from the restrictions -Mb, mi 3f STANDARD of exact science, free from the mental honesty which the study of mathematics would expect of him, free from mental discipline and even, if he were to put the thing into words, free from any form of discipline at all. Q. E. D. Why The Shortage? The business world is beset with a shortage of engineers these days. Apparently enough of them can't 'ha fmmrl fn fill all iha IaKb tVuitt need them. No need to look up the statistics of the matter right now. That there is a shortage of engineers is an established fact, backed by statistics which have been published, and are available to those who wish to look them up. Could it be that the 'foregoing item holds the answer to this? Engineers, in its numerous divisions is necessarily built upon mathematics, mathe-matics, and the same traits of mind which lead to a liking for it, or an aversion toward it, would apply. So maybe the dislike for mathematics expressed by so many students, is at the root of the shortage of engineers. Maybe, furthermore, fur-thermore, there just aren't enough who have the quality of gray matter mat-ter that these studies require, to ever meet the demand. And this could be held to apply, too, to the I talked-of shortage of doctors and other professional groups the prerequisite pre-requisite for membership in which is, first and foremost, the brilliant, exacting, truth-seeking type of mind needed in the exact sciences. Speaking Of Engineers. It was Fred Clayton, our own local inventor of new applications and devices in farm machinery, such as the rotary ditcher and the vacumn bug catcher, who called my attention to the fact that a picture of one of his brothers, Paul, ap-"pfirs ap-"pfirs in a Ford ad in the July 16 issue of LIFE, on page 108. Paul Clayton, who shows a family fam-ily resemblance to Fred very plainly, plain-ly, is featured in the ad as "Ford's executive Engine Engineer," which is certainly an interesting title. Fred tells me that Paul is head of an engineering division of some 1300 men. I was interested in seeing Paul's picture, partly because it was he your investment holds when you go over to old 3 i mi iookuti 'ipA POUTICiL CONVENTIONS (01 itomtml I tt fuC ui fcfji t Ca"J I t?'T-r m k r that I talked to when in Donrhorn on May 16, by phone. I called him from the Ford Rotunda. He had supplied the phone number thru a letter to Fred, verbatim transcript of our conver-verbatim conver-verbatim thanscript of our conversation, conver-sation, but it is close. "What I would like to get, Paul, is charts showing the effective compression, torque, and power curves of the Mercury engine, with the three optional cylinder heads, at sea level, and at the 5000 foot elevation." Paul replied, "The company has that data, but it is against policy to release it. Sorry I can't give it to you." I said, "I wanted my car equipped equip-ped with the high compression, 9 to 1 heads, with overdrive transmission. trans-mission. The company wouldn't de-liever de-liever it that way. But I feel that for operation in Utah, where the average elevation is near 5000 feet, the 9 to 1 ratio would actually develop de-velop effective compression, torque tor-que and power lower than the engine en-gine with 8 to 1 compression at sea level. In other words, for my use, I would not have an overpowered over-powered engine, developing more power than it was designed to develop, de-velop, even if I installed the HC heads." Paul: "I didn't think you would, either." But I didn't get the authoritative auth-oritative data I wanted, and I am still wondering just why the company com-pany seems to feel that its customers cus-tomers shouldn't be given the low-down low-down on such matters. If we are smart enough to buy their cars, aren't we smart enough to appreciate ap-preciate the significance of such data? Mechanics generally, much less engineers, know perfectly well that certain adjustments are necessary if any engine is to operate as efficiently ef-ficiently at high altitudes as at sea level. And most everyone knows that an internal combustion engine which will develop a certain advertised ad-vertised horsepower at sea level will develop less at higher altitudes. alti-tudes. One way to compensate for this is to install a supercharger, but this is an expensive, finicky device, not worth cost and trouble to most people. But there are other adjustments that can be made, without adding one bit to com .. .. , jyj j ' JL jf ,, A mm .fc 1 ' i I I i IS ! I jj if '! t i i i i ! t plexity or cost. And unless some adjustments are made, to compensate compen-sate for the higher elevation and consequent lower density of the atmosphere, any engine will be less efficient than it should be. Paul explained that the company I feels it necessary to refrain from supplying equipment which might cause trouble in the hands of some owners. That is understandable; yet I have always felt that one of the basic principles of human freedom was the right to get one- self into trouble, if one did it knowingly and, of course, without l involving others. My criticism of . the policy is that it is a little too j paternalistic. If I want to louse ! up my own car, at my own expense that should be my privilege. And I probably will. I don't like the idea of either the government or j a motor company protecting me ( from my own folly, and I don't I believe in asking them to stand my losses if things go wrong either. But I forget we are living in the age of conformity. At Fish Lake Last week I innocently observed here that Fish Lake was only 90 mile? away. Since then, I have driven overthere, the first time since 1934, and found it is more like 130 miles. Even so, it is a very easy, pleasant drive and a nice place to go. It is one thing to run onto local people in New York or Los Angeles, and something else to meet them at Fish Lake. You are sure to find all kinds of them there, or at least a pretty good assortment. Last Friday, among the locals over there were Marion Jepson, of Hinckley; Hinck-ley; Newell Knight, Max Jensen and Paul Dewsnup, who were shepherding a group of explorer scouts from Deseret; Scott Ches-ley, Ches-ley, N. S. Bassett, and Steven Chesly, who staged a successful fishing expedition; Max Kay, who was down with a friend from CAA control in Salt Lake; and Mr. and Mrs. Broderick, of Gunnison. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Erickson, of Salt Lake City, spent the weekend in Delta with their mother, Mrs. A. E. Stephenson. Powered up with -the highect I Styled -to lead -today and -tomorrow I Priced -to fit your budget now 1 Just think of the pure fun of owning an 01 Js this summer! But that' only half the story of this big, beautiful, budget-priced Rocket Engine "88. Right now youH be getting high trade-in fr your old car. Add this to Oldamohile's continually con-tinually high resale north . . . here's your smartest investment! 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